Benefits

 

January 4, 1935 Roosevelt’s message to Congress called for legislation to provide assistance for the unemployed, the aged, destitute children and the physically handicapped. January 15, 1935 The Committee on Economic Security released its Report to President Roosevelt.

 

It has been a long time since I’ve looked for employment. When I did I was looking for a job with an established company where I could make enough money to live. I never considered benefits.

 

Employee benefits are defined as a form of compensation paid by employers to employees over and above regular salary or wages. Employee benefits come in many forms and are an important part of the overall compensation package offered to employees.

 

I noticed on my first paycheck there was a list of items reducing my salary. What were all these reductions to my overall wealth? Some were taxes, which I had no choice in paying. Then there were all these other deductions? Do I have to pay these?

 

In 1959, Congress finally created a program of health benefits for federal employees. Prevalence of employer health plans skyrocketed from 9% in 1940 to 70% of all employers by the 1960's.

 

Benefits are any perks offered to employees in addition to salary. The most common benefits are medical, disability, and life insurance; retirement benefits; paid time off; and fringe benefits. Benefits can be quite valuable. Medical insurance alone can cost several hundred dollars a month.

 

Some of these ‘benefits’ seemed a good idea. Having never talked to my parents about what happened when I went to the hospital or had the doctor come by, I had no idea of the cost of that ‘service’. I figured the hospital sent my dad a bill and he paid it off like a car or refrigerator payment.

 

My family were never ‘annual check-up’ kind of folks, so other than a band-aid or some Mercurochrome, a wound had to be pretty bad to take to the hospital. Only later in life was their talk about cancer and heart attacks and that was vague.

 

I’m sure I got a registration notice for health insurance because I had to check ‘family’ coverage because I’d just gotten married. Going to the doctor was foreign to us and she had no OBGYN and I knew nothing about that stuff. All I knew having two people on my work health insurance took more money out of my paycheck.

 

Now I’ll admit there were benefits to my new job that I expected, but didn’t appreciate. I had a table and a chair. I had a space to put my coat. I had some walls where I could tape images (as long as they didn’t offend anyone else in the office – I found out). The room was heated in the winter and cooled enough in the summer. There was a shared telephone, light and even a bathroom down the hall. There was no punch clock but a form to fill out (honor system) to list the number of hours worked a week.

 

I’d expected to have nights off and weekends off and holidays off and was hoping to have spring break like in school. What I found out was time off was a benefit. This company (supposedly) was working 24/7/365 and employees were expected to even show up on snow days.

 

For some reason, I was also given Life Insurance I’d not asked for. I think this was compensation to a family in case a bundle of newspapers fell on my head? Never had to use it.

 

The benefits changed through the years (some legal and some not) and my job changed into a career. There were parties and conventions with free room and board. There were salary wage increases just for being there another year. There were redecorated offices and introduction to digital technology; all on the company’s dime.

 

At the same time, the personnel department had transformed into Human Relations to implement required governmental benefits. Women’s rights, disability rights, equality employment rights, safety requirements and so much more were taught to managers. Most of these should have been common sense, but had to be laws. Some of them were followed.

 

At first people were told their jobs were to move boxes, dig holes, build buildings and pick cotton. Then the government said people could not be bought and sold and must be paid a fair wage for a days work.

 

A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Companies can avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, moving labor to locations with lower minimum wages, or by automating job functions.

 

The movement for minimum wages was first motivated as a way to stop the exploitation of workers in sweatshops, by employers who were thought to have unfair bargaining power over them.

 

Pay was calculated by the skill needed to perform the task, experience in similar work and demand for workers. Job descriptions stated what was required for employment and the pay associated with the task at hand. Some companies could negotiate the pay level. If wages were better for the same job at another company, the company could match the pay level or the employee could leave. If employees wanted more pay than was offered they could form a union to pressure the employer with their demands with the threat of striking or being fired.

 

I would imagine today a resume would not only tell the ability of the applicant but the expected requirements for benefits. Salary is not the only incentive for a potential employee.

 

There are many types of employment benefits:

·      Remote work

·      Healthcare

·      Paid time off

·      Flexible hours

·      Paid family leave

·      Four-day workweek

·      Free food in the office

·      Student loan assistance

·      Pet insurance/pet friendly offices

·      Fitness perks

 

Let’s think about some of these benefits?

 

Paid Vacation. When you need to take a break from work and the 16 hours a day you are not at work and the two-day weekend doesn’t cut it, you want to take a vacation. For a company to pay you to take a week or two off is a benefit. The company thinks it will rejuvenate the employee and the employee expects the time to take the family to Disneyland. An incentive to keep employees from leaving is the carrot on the stick that additional time will be allowed for vacations as long as you stayed with the company.

 

Sick Days. Employees get sick. Factories, offices, schools and fields are germ factories. When people get together to work, they bring their germs with them and don’t mind sharing them. Employers would rather you stay at home than to bring your germs to work so they allow a certain number of days for you to stay at home and get bed rest. If the illness goes for more time, then disability insurance will need to be used. Now there is maternity leave, parental leave and even time off to attend your immediate family funerals. Some employees just consider these days as additional vacation time off.

 

Perks. Bonuses for exceptional work can be an unexpected benefit. Travel fee including gas reimbursement can be a benefit. Having a company car is certainly a benefit. Having free coffee in a lunchroom can be a perk. Being given a space for an office is definitely a perk that comes with titles. Getting email used to be a perk but is not a necessity, along with Internet connection and broadband speed. Being given a work phone and a laptop is not an expected benefit without considering that the employer can monitor every moment online.

 

Super Perks. Stocks options were always a perk. At my place it was called ‘The Thrift Plan’. The deal was for every dollar deleted from the paycheck to buy a stock in the company, the company would add 50¢ for free. This deal was only on company stock. The more money you had deducted, the more stocks you received (at the value at the time). It was a savings account that you didn’t think about until the company stopped putting in their share. Luckily the plan was updated to diverse to purchase other stocks. Then the stocks started to fall in value. When I was ‘retired’ the $70 stock had dropped to $17. It was about as valuable as confederate money. Stock options were also given as substitution for pay to balance an impressive salary.

Another super perk was ‘Casual Friday’. Instead of spending gobs of pay for fancy clothing, one day a week everyone could dress down. There were still fashion codes so torn t-shirts or holey jeans were not acceptable. One day turned into two and then three and now office attire looks like a college dorm.

Along with the eternal list of birthday parties, holiday parties and whatever reason to stop working and eat pizza and cake, there were special days where you could bring your child to the office. Not only did the parent’s productivity drop but also the screaming brats running amok disrupted also all the surrounding associates. Better yet were the ‘Bring Your Pet to Work’ days. A cat in a cage or a big fluffy slobbering dog might be acceptable but a loose bird or a snake may disrupt the office.

 

Super Duper Perk. Working with strangers can be a socializing experience that can benefit by personality. Dealing with other’s drama for eight hours can be tolerated and even subject for water cooler gossip.

 

The biggest benefit is the office romance. If you hadn’t chosen your ‘significant other’ in school, work is a good place to make a selection. Unlike bars or online profiles, the work place lets you observe the other person in a natural setting. How do they get along with others? How do others interact with them? You can observe their wardrobe, what they eat, if they are aggressive enough to get raises and higher positions and hear from others who know him or her better a history before making the plunge.

 

The Best Benefit of All. A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee’s employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person’s retirement from work in the form of periodic payments.

A pension may be a “defined benefit plan”, where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a “defined contribution plan”, under which a fixed sum is invested that then becomes available at retirement age.

Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is usually paid in regular installments for life after retirement, while the latter is typically paid as a fixed amount after involuntary termination of employment prior to retirement.

The terms “retirement plan” and “superannuation” tend to refer to a pension granted upon retirement of the individual.

Employers, insurance companies, the government, or other institutions such as employer associations or trade unions may set up retirement plans.

Retirement pensions are typically in the form of a guaranteed life annuity, thus insuring against the risk of longevity.

A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension.

Labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions.

Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for tax reasons.

Many pensions also contain an additional insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries.

Other vehicles (certain lottery payouts, for example, or an annuity) may provide a similar stream of payments.

The common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal or contractual terms.

A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree.

 

It is a benefit that companies supply ‘saving’ accounts for us for we’d just end up broke and old.

 A pensioner.