In the past I’ve talked about the benefits of being an employee (versus being a contractor or small-business owner). Today I want to share seven specific things that full-time employees might have in their benefits package that contractors, freelance workers, and small business owners may not enjoy themselves.
1) 401k Match
Ever since pension funds fell out of favor, 401k retirement accounts became the popular choice of retirement “perks” that employers offer to their employees. Besides just offering a retirement account, many employers also will match employee contributions up to a certain amount. Employer contributions add up over time and should certainly be factored into your overall compensation as an employee.
2) Health Insurance
Probably the most controversial topic in recent years in the United States is health insurance coverage. Almost universally health insurance coverage extends to dependents, such as a spouse or domestic partner, as well as children. While today health insurance is a staple of full-time employment, it will be much easier for individuals to purchase coverage on their own when health insurance exchanges are launched in 2014.
3) Vision & Dental Insurance
Many companies offer vision and dental insurance with very low premiums. At the very least, they cover your yearly check-ups. For vision, usually there is some balance available for contacts and glasses. While I would not consider this to be a huge perk (there is limited coverage for things like braces and wisdom tooth extractions), overall it’s better than nothing.
4) Employee Stock Purchase Plans
Personally, one of the biggest perks I enjoy as a corporate employee (other than health insurance) is my company’s generous stock purchase program. Plans vary by company, but at my company they work in six month periods. Let’s say the first six month period is January to June. You can contribute up to 10% of your paycheck, which auto-deducts during the period. Let’s say the stock started at $25 and ended at $50. They purchase the stock at the lesser of the two prices, so $25, plus a 15% discount…essentially a huge gain if you turn around and sell all the stock right away for $50. As you can see, if there was a really good period where the stock doubled, you could make a significant bonus if you decided to sell right away. Even if the stock decreases, you get a 15% return.
Each company is different, as some companies force you to hold it for a certain number of years before selling. Overall, though, these stock purchase plans come with perks.
5) Training and Development
Probably the biggest advantage of working full-time for a company is that so many of them encourage making training and development part of a regular work week. Whether it is formal classroom training or online training paid for by the company, speeches by business leaders, or just on-the-job training, oftentimes you can integrate skill development into your regular work week. Contractors, on the other hand, might not have the option of including training in their billable hours.
6) Gym/Fitness Center
A huge perk of my current employer is our workout room. I don’t have to buy a gym membership and I can easily include a workout in the middle of my day because of our fitness center. There are even quite a few group fitness classes offered at my current employer, and many take advantage of this added perk. I’m a bit surprised when I find fellow employees who have never set food in the fitness center; there are tons of people who would kill to have it as an option at work.
7) Discounts on Various Products
Many companies have made agreements with cell phone carriers to allow for discounts for their employees. I get a 25% discount on my Sprint bill (though I still think it’s way too high!) and I know others who have happily taken advantage of this perk. There are various other offers, from discounted gym memberships to discounted laptops. Again, these benefits vary by company.
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Employees make more money than they think. Oftentimes, when you think about how much you “make” at your job, you immediately think about your salary. If you want to talk about what you truly make working for a company you would have to consider the benefits you receive as well.
If you are a full-time employee, do you get any of these benefits? If you are a small business owner or contractor, how much did you weigh benefits in making your career move?
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The biggest advantage for me was the training aspect, but over the last year they have cut the funding to almost $0 and so I am seriously considering a move to a better employer sometime this year.
@MonsterPiggyBank Training and development is very important to me as well. If I’m not developing my skills, I’m not going to be able to make more $ or stay relevant to the work force.
Great list of perks DC! Though, I think you might know my stance on this. :) Many of these perks can be quite good, but in the end when we made our decision the only thing that played major role was #2. We ended up being able to get insurance that was roughly about $80/month more which is not too bad.
@FrugalRules That’s not much of an increase at all for health insurance. Congrats!
These are all great perks. I work for a small company and get most of these and love it.
@SenseofCents That’s great! I wonder how it varies between small biz and large biz….I might have to investigate….
I agree with all of these. I have so many perks that I get for working for somebody else- profit sharing, 401K match, paid smartphone, annual clothing allowance, etc. etc. It all adds up!
@Holly at ClubThrifty Clothing allowance? That’s one I haven’t heard! That’s awesome.
@DC @ Young Adult Money @Holly at ClubThrifty
I typically get $500 to spend on work clothes every July!
The thing that was cool about being a full-time employee was that we had an amazing benefits package. The other things I miss are getting paid “for sure” twice a month, paid vacation, annual bonus, and paid travel.
@TacklingOurDebt Yeah there are pros and cons with everything, and a benefits package is definitely a pro of being an employee.
I don’t have a dang one of these. Maybe I should find a job that does.
@frugalportland You just might want to look into it : )
There are a lot of advantages to being an employee, I enjoyed the stock options and the match the most. Health insurance was mandatory and I wouldn’t have taken it on my own, it was heavily subsidized but I still had to pay something off my paycheck, not too happy about that. PS I have a similar post queued up, now I’ll wait :)
There is certainly something to be said for a job with benefits. My husband is a teacher, which pays pretty crappy, but he has awesome insurance, has a pay scale which spells out when you get a raise, gets summers off, has tons of holidays, and gets a pension. Not too shabby!
A lot of people diss working for the man but these benefits definitely are something to consider. They provide a lot of value.