Money's great, it's one of my favorite things in the world but it's not everything. Would it
be awesome if your employer could pay you with a visit to the doctor, or in all expenses paid
cruise to the Bahamas, or even your entire college degree? It might sound weird but some employers do
actually offer these as compensation in addition to your paycheck! Well, not these things exactly
but you'll know what I mean in a second. These types of non-monetary compensation are known as
benefits and they could add some serious value to your employment. In this video, we're gonna
go over some of the most common benefits employers will offer to their employees. Let's get into it!
There are certain benefits that you will receive from any employer no matter what. These are known
as mandatory benefits and employers are required by law to provide them to anybody on their
payroll. Federal mandatory benefits include Social Security and Medicare contributions,
unemployment insurance contributions, and Workers compensation insurance. Social
Security and Medicare are federal assistance programs that take care of retired citizens.
A small amount of your pay is automatically taxed to pay for these programs, 7.65% to be
exact and your employer pays the exact same amount as you do. So in a way this
benefit is like your employer paying half of your contribution themselves.
With unemployment insurance you get the peace of mind that should you lose your
job through no fault of your own you'll still have a little income to take care
of yourself until you find another job. Unemployment insurance contributions are
even better than Social Security and Medicare contributions. You
don't have to pay a single cent. Your employer covers the entire contribution.
The final mandatory benefit that employers have to provide well, in every state but Texas, is workers
compensation insurance, more commonly known as workers comp. If you're injured at work, workers
comp will pay for your medical expenses! Even employers that aren't required to offer workers
comp still often choose to because it keeps you from taking them to court over an injury.
Any benefit that isn't required by law is known as a voluntary benefit. Voluntary because it's
up to the company to choose whether or not to offer the benefit. Now the question of
whether to offer a voluntary benefit or not might seem like a no-brainer, less benefits
means more money in the company's pockets, right? But really it's not quite that simple.
See benefits are seen as an investment in the company's most important resource;
people. Providing more benefits keeps employees loyal to the company. Kind of a you scratch
my back I'll scratch yours sort of deal. So most companies offer a wide range of voluntary benefits
to keep their employees happy. One of the most common voluntary benefits and one that employees
frequently say is the one they most care about is health insurance. We'll learn about how health
insurance works later on in the course but let me tell you this now, it's expensive to pay for it
on your own! But if you join an employer's group health insurance plan, you could get
good insurance at a fraction of the usual cost. Similar to health insurance, some employers will
also offer dental and vision insurance for cheaper than you can get for looking for it on your own.
Another common voluntary benefit that people look forward to is paid time off or PTO.
Some jobs just leave it at that PTO, while others will split it up into categories like sick days,
personal days, or vacation days with specific requirements for using each type.
Paid time off is exactly what it sounds like, by using PTO you can get paid even if you don't go
to work. I'm currently saving up my PTO days so that I can get paid to take a week long cruise.
Oh, I can smell the ocean breeze already.
Part of investing in your employees means paying to make sure that they're the best employees that
they can be which is why plenty of employers offer continuing education benefits which could come in
many different forms. Some will pay for you to travel to conventions where you can meet others
in your profession and learn from their expertise. Some will hold professional training days to help
everybody become better at their jobs. And some will even help you attend college and get a higher
degree by loaning you money and letting you work it off, or just outright paying for your tuition!
Continuing education benefits are another one of those benefits that ranks pretty highly on
young people's radars. Think about it, if you were getting started at a job and you
had your whole life ahead of you, wouldn't you be excited for the opportunity to learn,
grow, and rise through the ranks quickly? I know I would!
If you want one final reason to pay attention to benefits, how does the benefit of being able
to comfortably retire sound? Many employers will set up a retirement account for you,
set aside part of your pay to be automatically contributed to that account, and even contribute
contribute a portion of their own money to help grow your account even quicker. A hefty retirement
account is essential for being able to retire and live the last few decades of your life in peace so
any employer that offers you this benefit isn't just saying that they'll care about you while
you're working for them, they're showing you that they'll still care about you after you retire.
Now most benefits are structured in a way so that your employer pays for a
portion or all of something that you'd generally have to pay for by yourself.
But that begs the question, considering however much they're paying you and all the
benefits they're giving you, how much total compensation is your employer offering you?
Well in the next lesson you're going to learn how to calculate total compensation by factoring
in everything your employer provides for you in addition to your paycheck. See you then!