PROFESSOR PRINCE’S WORK ON BENEFITS TRANSPARENCY AND BENEFITS WASHING FEATURED IN TWO FORBES ARTICLES
August 2024 — Professor Samantha Prince’s work on Benefits Transparency and Benefits Washing was spotlighted in two Forbes articles in July. As a “leading advocate for stronger benefits disclosure laws,” she was quoted throughout both articles.
The first article and Editors’ Pick, “How Employee Benefits Transparency Can Advance Gender Pay Equity,” focuses on the need for health benefits transparency in order to advance gender pay equity. As stated in the article: “[N]ot all employer health plans cover IVF or other fertility treatment, abortion-related costs and travel, and other critical women’s health care needs. ‘If women don’t realize they are working for an employer who does not offer these benefits, then they may end up paying for such care on their own,’ explained Prince via email. ‘When thinking about reducing the gender pay gap,’ said Prince, ‘if someone doesn’t receive such a benefit, they have to pay money someone else won’t have to pay out (thereby eating up more of their earnings).’”
The second article, “3 Reasons To Require Greater Retirement Benefits Transparency,” also quotes Professor Prince. “‘Women have been impeded from saving for retirement in several ways,’ explains Prince. ‘First, they have less money they can afford to defer in their company 401(k) plan. Second, because they get paid less than men, they receive less in matching or other contributions because such contributions are either based on the employee’s salary deferral or a percentage of their salary.’”
“Women also tend to be disproportionately impacted by 401(k) vesting requirements. ‘Women are generally more transient and therefore likely forfeit more employer contributions if their plans are subject to vesting schedules,’ explained Prince, via email. ‘As a result, more women lack economic security as they age.’”
Both Forbes articles were authored by Professor Michelle Travis, University of San Francisco School of Law.
Professor Samantha Prince is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of Legal Analysis & Writing at Dickinson Law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and was a partner in a regional law firm where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly-traded company. A significant part of her practice was in employee benefits including retirement plan design and operation. Her expertise from practice has fueled her research enabling her to become an expert on 401(k) vesting schedules, employee benefits transparency, and gig work. In practice, most of her clients were small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. Professor Prince brought her practice knowledge to the law school and established the Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program. She is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog.