Best company benefits

[QuarterMillionMan]

Just curious as to what other people's benefits might include? I work in the public sector so my best benefits are 4% 401k match, major holidays off, and funeral expenses (big whoop, lol). Google for instance provides its employees with free hair cuts, fitness center amenties, laundry services, etc. Hotel employees get free cafeteria meals (this would be a valuable benefit to me). Teachers get recruited with $10,000 signing bonuses, etc. I think Zappos encourages employee dating (including superior/subordinate dates). Just curious as to what others might getting .

[phantom]

Most people's favorite benefit at my company is Beer Friday. It's a social hour at the end of the day every Friday that includes free beer (or wine). It's a good chance to talk to people you don't normally get to talk to and generally unwind.

Our most unusual benefit is unlimited, flexible paid time off. We can take as many days off as we like (almost) whenever we like as long as we're getting our work done. Leaving a little early or coming in a little late when we have doctor's appointments and such is encouraged. It's really nice to not have to worry about keeping track of the days you use, worrying about running out of days, or worrying about losing days at the end of the year. But, there's a little fear of being accused of abusing the system that causes some people to take less time off than they otherwise would. The only restriction is that we cannot take time off during our blackout period unless we get sick or are taking maternity leave or something like that. The blackout period varies from department to department depending on whether the department needs to gear up in advance of the busy season or gets busy during the busy season.

[bUU]

Our benefits suck. No company matching of anything. No bonuses or really any profit-sharing of any sort, to speak of. Adjusted for inflation, I'm making 16% less than ten years ago, and I'm among the "stars" in the company.

The only decent benefit we have is that the company reimburses us for health insurance co-pays.

[riverwed070707]

Most people's favorite benefit at my company is Beer Friday. It's a social hour at the end of the day every Friday that includes free beer (or wine). It's a good chance to talk to people you don't normally get to talk to and generally unwind.

Our most unusual benefit is unlimited, flexible paid time off. We can take as many days off as we like (almost) whenever we like as long as we're getting our work done. Leaving a little early or coming in a little late when we have doctor's appointments and such is encouraged. It's really nice to not have to worry about keeping track of the days you use, worrying about running out of days, or worrying about losing days at the end of the year. But, there's a little fear of being accused of abusing the system that causes some people to take less time off than they otherwise would. The only restriction is that we cannot take time off during our blackout period unless we get sick or are taking maternity leave or something like that. The blackout period varies from department to department depending on whether the department needs to gear up in advance of the busy season or gets busy during the busy season.

Never heard of something like this but how cool! Our company used to start employees with 10 days pto (goes up with 5, 7 and 10 years of service) and then you had unlimited sick time. A couple years ago they changed the system to 18 days which includes your pto and sick time because people were abusing the sick time. For people like me who are rarely sick it worked out great because I got an extra 8 days a year, and they carry over! Now that I've been here 5 years I get 23 days a year which is far more than I use but its nice not to have to think about whether I can afford to use a day here and there to relax, go see family, etc. without it cutting into vacations and holiday time.

[edg126]

My first job out of college (2005) gave us an $8 stipend each day for lunch, they'd order from 3 different places each day and you'd place the order in a database, then get an email that the lunch was in the cafeteria. They'd also have a fridge stocked with all types of soda's, snappel's etc, (and 2 years earlier when they were in really early startupmode had beer). There were always at least 2-3 department sponsored happy hours a week that anyone could go to and drink/eat for free. Then the culture started changing as the founders left and they took it all away.

The company after that had 'unlimited' vacation time, but the employees worked about 70 hours a week, so it's a bit of a lie, since there was so much work to do and you needed to take 'time off' when you couldn't attend the 8PM monday team meeting (after getting into the office at 7:30AM!!!). they got voted best places to work by a philly tech magazine because on paper it seemed like an awesome place to work, but it was one of my worst...

[disneysteve]

Google for instance provides its employees with free hair cuts, fitness center amenties, laundry services, etc.

My niece works for Google. This list doesn't begin to cover her benefits and perks. They treat their employees extremely well.

I'm not in the corporate world. I work in a 2-man family practice office. I've got minimal benefits. No retirement plan. No pension. Part of my health insurance is covered. My malpractice is covered. My license fees are covered. That's about it.

[MonkeyMama]

I don't think most people realize that small business employees get little more than small business owners (since they can't offer much).

I currently get no benefits, but do get vacation, sick time, holidays, and license fees and education paid for. If I worked one less hour a week, I'd lose all of the above. I do also get very decent benefits from my professional association (really good life and disability insurance with low rates).

When the economy was better, we did have a really good profit sharing plan. Employer is of retirement age, and no personal motivation to offer a more robust retirement plan, so I don't expect much in the near future. But I also don't expect to be working here very long, for the same reasons.

I suppose I should add employer pays us overtime, though he does not have to (we are all salaried). This makes up for some of the rest.

All that said, I did work for a large international corporation before this job. (Otherwise only very small businesses). Though they offered a lot of "benefits," they were all mostly crap. With the profit sharing I had 10 years at my current job, I Was coming out well ahead and felt much more appreciated. It was because of the big mega corp's horrible crappy insurance that I pursued private health insurance on my own. IT cost about the same but was much better. Same story for my current employer. HE will cover just me, but it's crap, and it's cheaper just to insure us all (me + spouse + kids) with a better insurer, than it is to put my dependents on this totally crappy plan.

[twest]

Well one of our most wonderful benefits is we get 10% toward our retirement. We don't have to put anything in to get it. I also get a longevity bonus once a year which is nice because it increases every year and there is no top out. Even those coming in brand new receive 1 sick leave day and 1 annual leave day a month....so 24 in all. After we have been with the agency the annual leave increases according to how long we have been here. The maximum is 2 days a month so 36 days/year with both annual and sick leave once a person has been here 20 years. Another one that people really enjoy here is the day before a holiday we sometimes get to leave 1hr to 1.5hrs early. On the last work day before Christmas eve we only work half a day

[phantom]

Another one that people really enjoy here is the day before a holiday we sometimes get to leave 1hr to 1.5hrs early.

My husband and I both work for companies that usually let us leave early on the day before long weekends. We carpool, and it gets annoying when neither of us knows exactly when we'll be able to leave, and one of us gets to leave before the other. But, we've learned to just take separate cars on those days and enjoy the early dismissal.

[ua_guy]

Our company retirement match is 5-15% depending on your years of service. I'm relatively new, but rest assured I'm taking full advantage of that.

The negotiated healthcare insurance premiums are fantastic. <$30/month for absolutely fantastic coverage for myself. It also covers domestic partners, however, the company does not cover the tax bill, because domestic partner benefits are taxable as income to the employee. Included in there is vision and dental care, and some minimal life and ad&d coverage.

We follow the federal holiday schedule, so that amounts to ~3 extra holidays per year over most other employers. We get days that include MLK, President's Day, and I believe Columbus day, but that was swapped with the day after T-day, so at Thanksgiving we Thanksgiving off by default, but also the Friday right after T-day instead of Columbus day. We also observe a floating personal holiday.

Tuition assistance, and some ancillary benefits. It's been rumored that there's an announcement coming shortly about flexible work schedules and the ability to occasionally work from home. Presumably I'll be able to smash my work-week into 4-10's and enjoy 3-day weekends. Sick time accrues with the standards set forth by the state, and vacation time accrues 8 hours/month to start in addition to holidays that we already get.

[reedda]

I consider my biggest benefit to be flexible working hours. I'm an hourly employee, but don't have to clock in and out at specific times.

My company gives employees a paid sabbatical after 10 years of service. I just took advantage of that over the summer. It was WONDERFUL!

We get 11 paid holidays and I'm at 20 vacation days per year (based on Years of Service, it starts at 15 days though). We also get 8 hours of "parental school visit" time if needed, and no set amount of sick time (we use it as needed).

I'm also taking advantage of the tuition reimbursement program. They'll pay up to $20,000 towards a Bachelor's degree and an additional $10,000 towards a Masters.

The health insurance has been awesome for my family, who are typically healthy. I pay a biweekly premium out of my paycheck, and there's a cost for prescriptions (as low as $10, as high as $30, depending), but no copay. The deductible is huge for a family, $6000, but my company pays the first $3000 of that and as a result I have not had to pay for any visits or even two surgeries I had to have. So, it's basically 100% coverage up to $3000 per year, then I'd have to pay $3000 deductible, then it's 100% coverage after that.

Vision and dental is separate insurance (VSP and Delta), but is included in the biweekly premium. I hate our dental plan though. The dentists think it's wonderful, but since I need major work done, it's not so wonderful for me

We have an ESPP with purchases twice per year at a 20% discount of the lowest price between two price points.

Our 401(k) is funky though. After two years of service, my company matches 100% of the first 2% that an employee contributes. Then company matches 50% of the next 3% of employee contribution. Then, if the company hits certain profitability, some percentage of operating income. It's gets pretty confusing here. Something like .5% for every 1% of operating income over 10%.

Other locations seem to have some pretty cool "perks" but I don't see them too much at my location.

[sweetlady2k]

My company has some good benifits and some bad. We have pension and 401k. Pension is 65% at 25 years and 75% at 30 years. 4% 401k match. About 60 dollars a week for my life insurance (10x yearly earnings), short and long term disbility, medical for myself and 2 kids, dental and rx. The vacations are 2 weeks,, 3 weeks after 5 years, 4 weeks after 10 years. Holiday and sick pay are the downside. We get paid for some holidays but not many and work on all but Christmas day and thanksgivng. We get al of the holiday pay for the year at once added to our paycheck in November. Its usually like 240$ extra. Sick days are 40$ each so most peope can't afford to call in sick. I had to work a whole week with bronchitis and strep throat until I had a day off to go to the doctor one year.

[Mjenn]

I live in Europe so a bit different, and now I run my own business, so I pay my own benefits if I choose -- but my last corporate job here was very cushy....

8-15%private pension contribution (401 K equivalent)
10% of salary during parental leave (on top of 80% of salary paid by state)
Free gym membership
5 weeks vacation (up to 6 if you are over 40)
bankable hours (1 hour every week to bank and take off if you need to go to the doctor/dentist/etc)
2 weeks paid sick leave at 90% of salary (then turns into more but from the state at 80% of salary)
Flexitime - you can choose around when you start and leave (have to be there between 9-3)
Summer hours - Go home 30 minutes early during summer months - paid full time
1 hour per month you can use towards a massage (you pay for the massage, but can use an hour paid)
Access to summer cottages the company rents at a discounted rate (long waiting list!)
Budget for training and education each year -- to be used on courses of my choice.

Ok, so typing that up makes me wonder why I ever left! But I can deduct most of the above costs from my small business tax - can even use a larger pension contribution - and most of the major benefits - health care, sick leave, maternity pay, pay for being home with a sick child -- are via taxes and everyone has that....

[QuarterMillionMan]

A friend of mine works for an airline as some kind of reservationist, she works from home in Los Angeles. That alone is a benefit of some sort but the benefit that I really want to get at is she gets to fly for free on 1st Class, albeit stand-by. She travels often to Hawaii, Florida, Minnesota, San Francisco, etc. Sometimes she does a day-trip just to do shopping and returns the same night. That must be a great benefit to travel for free. Come to think of it I think she mentioned having to pay just the taxes, still it's a great benefit.


I used to work as a waiter at different restaurants (coffee shop, buffet, hotel restaurant) and all establishments provided free employee meals. This is one benefit that I really miss in my current line of work which doesn't deal with foods. The hotel served cafeteria style employee meals. The buffet allowed employees access to the buffet line with the exception of the prime rib. And the coffee shop allowed employees an $8 credit to spend per shift work. All burgers & sandwiches were covered, spaghettis, omelettes, certain steaks, fried chicken, etc. The tips were another benefit which provided daily spending money but the tips weren't great (average $25 daily).



Government workers in Hawaii get 21 days sick leave & 21 days vacation per year from day one.

[rossmel]

Nothing big deal really. My benefits include: health and social security. Once we got a free movie and I hope it will again happen. Honestly, it really fuels me up when "free something" rings my ears. I work hard but I know I work harder to have. hahaha. But to get more free things, not all of these is I can get from work. I am an avid fan of free samples and a subscriber of many site like freaky freddies free funhouse. It is also my other way of saving money and indeed not a waste of time.