The free ride is over.
Beginning Jan. 1, all full-time Oxford Township employees will make financial contributions toward their health, vision and dental insurance.
Each of the 10 employees will pay 2.5 percent of their insurance premiums, which amounts to a $172.51 annual contribution for single people, $414.03 for couples and $513.57 for families.
Affected employees include the elected supervisor, clerk and treasurer, their three deputies, the treasurer and clerk’s two assistants, the station manager for Oxford Community Television and the administrative assistant for the Oakland County Sheriff’s substation.
Currently, the township spends $141,396.96 annually to cover these employees? insurance premiums.
It costs the township $6,900.48 annually to cover a single person, $16,561.32 for a couple and $20,542.80 to provide insurance for a family.
The mandatory 2.5 percent contribution will save the township a total of $3,913.44 next year, according to Clerk Curtis Wright.
In 2012, employee contributions will increase to 5 percent, which should, if rates remain the same, double the overall savings to $7,826.88.
Township officials voted to begin having full-time employees contribute to their insurance in order to mirror the two-year employment agreement they recently approved with the firefighters union.
Officials also voted to give township employees two additional holidays off with pay ? Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Good Friday. Just like the firefighters, township employees will now receive a total of 12 paid holidays.