Halloween parties and retirement send-offs are on the wane, but bringing your dog to the office is increasingly OK. At Chipotle Mexican Grill headquarters in Denver, workers can even receive $10 a month toward the cost of pet medical insurance. Dry cleaning and other retail conveniences at work--even a gas station and hair salon at General Mills outside Minneapolis--are in these days. But more firms now want frequent-flier miles from company-paid trips to be handed over and say getting your clothes pressed en route is your responsibility.

That's the lighter side of the myriad changes taking place in employee benefits as corporations work to trim costs yet keep up worker spirit. More serious is the erosion in medical benefits and in employer-funded retirement plans. Workers are being asked to pay more out of their own pockets, often for less in benefits. Anxiety is high as workers with slim or no benefits struggle while others worry over losing what they have. Some workers have been able to stave off cutbacks: The Stop & Shop grocery chain in New England averted a February strike only by continuing to fully pay health premiums. But except by quitting, most lack the muscle to change their circumstances. Striking grocery workers in California have been fighting for four months against a trim in medical benefits.

The cutbacks partly reflect a shift in power. "When there were more jobs than people to fill them, employers had to sweeten their offers," says Carroll Lachnit, editor of the trade publication Workforce Management. "Now it's often the opposite situation."

New York attorney Lowell Peterson, who won severance settlements for laid-off Enron and WorldCom employees, sees a break in the post-World War II "social compact" that promised a degree of paternalism. "Corporate America is saying we don't like that deal anymore," he says. "It costs us too much, so we are going to try to get out of it."

Cutting back. The average annual cost of medical coverage ranged from $6,000 to $10,000 last year, according to various surveys. The bill is up about 75 percent in six years, says Mercer Human Resource Consulting. One result is a falloff in firms willing to pick up the full tab for healthcare. And experts say the tightening continues. In addition to stiffer paycheck deductions for healthcare, firms are raising deductibles and copayments that workers must cover. The typical copayment for a generic drug has doubled to $10 in the past two years, and drugs not on a favored list may require a copay of $30 or more. In an attempt to focus attention on doctors' charges and encourage comparison shopping, Sears, Roebuck & Co. now reimburses 20 percent of the cost of a doctor's visit instead of a flat $20. At Procter & Gamble, the copay for primary-care physicians has been raised from $12 to $15 and for specialists from $15 to $25. At some firms even modest dental care--already often capped at $1,000 a year--is being scrutinized for savings.

Retirement plans are also under attack as firms reduce contributions and implement plans that are less financially binding. Though many employees, and especially government workers, still enjoy liberal deals, fewer and fewer companies are promoting or enhancing old-style pensions that promise steady income and extra rewards to people who stay with a firm a long time. A growing number of companies now provide benefit plans that vary depending on investment returns, generally ignore longevity, and may be based mostly on worker contributions.

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