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Yep.

My total compensation has increased significantly, over the last three years - all of it in increased health care costs. My take-home has gone down.

My total compensation has increased significantly, over the last three years - all of it in increased health care costs. My take-home has gone down.

The article builds to this conclusion:

The most optimistic explanation suggests that Americans might be on the verge of getting a long-awaited raise after all...The share of businesses saying they expect to increase compensation in the coming months is finally creeping up, and more consumers are expecting income gains in the year ahead than at any time since Lehman imploded in 2008. For the sake of the economy, public coffers and your pocketbook, let’s hope they’re right.

That huge bump you're about to get in your paycheck? It's (most of) the amount your employer had been paying for your employer-paid medical coverage, and what a coincidence! It's open-enrollment time, and you just discovered that your employer no longer offers medical insurance, and they're now paying you the premiums formerly paid to your insurance company.

That's the case with most of us. We will soon have our annual enrollment meeting to explain how much more the company is paying for health insurance, how much more we are going to have to pay in some combination of increased deductibles, increased premiums and co-pays and reduced benefits . . . and how little it really is compared to what the company is eating.

Last year, our HR manager doing this presentation told us this is what America voted for . . . and more than a few of us shouted " . . . thanks to the jackwagons who voted for Obama" or words to that effect. We were NOT rebuked.