Similarly, 15 of the country's largest companies said they were eliminating company-paid medical benefits entirely for current or future retirees, according to a 1991 survey of 150 employers by Towers Perrin, a consulting firm.

None work more than 20 hours a week, Mr. Domajnko said, and none, for that reason, qualify for Gillette's company-paid benefits.

But as more women reach senior management posts, where outplacement counseling is a company-paid benefit, that is changing.

How unfortunate is it that Mr. Brown, as part of I.B.M.'s financial assistance program, received in his early retirement program two years of full salary, a lifetime pension eligibility, free health care for himself and his spouse plus many other company-paid benefits?

Through a combination of company-paid benefits and state unemployment compensation, that program enables the workers to receive what they say is about 70 percent of their gross pay.

"How unfortuante is it," Mr. Kurtz asked, "that Mr. Brown . . . received in his early retirement program two years of full salary, a lifetime pension elgibility, free health care for himself and his spouse plus many other company-paid benefits?"

So would subsidizing health insurance premiums for unemployed workers who had lost company-paid benefits - another popular proposal among many mainstream economists and Senate Democrats.

Unlike a 401(k) plan, this is not a salary-reduction plan; it is a company-paid benefit.

Pizza Hut store managers receive company-paid benefits, which they can use for medical, dental or other needs.