Employee Benefits
Employee benefits, sometimes called fringe benefits, are indirect forms of compensation provided to employees as part of an employment relationship.
Employee benefits exist in companies worldwide, but the types and levels of benefits vary greatly from country to country. For example, employees in Germany and other European countries receive more days of a holiday than the average U.S. employee. Conversely, most employers in the United States offer some form of private healthcare to employees. But most companies in European countries don't offer this employee benefit, because it is provided through government-sponsored socialized healthcare programs.
In the United States, legislation requires almost all employers to offer the social security benefit, whichprovides monthly benefits to retired workers who are at least sixty-two years of age, disabled workers, and their eligible spouses and dependents; unemployment insurance that provides income to unemployed individuals who lose a job through no fault of their own ;and workers' compensation insurance which provides financial protection for individualshurt or become sick for job-related reasons. Larger companies (those with fifty or more employees) are also required to offer employees an unpaid family and medical leave benefit.
Parental (maternal and paternal) leave are both popular topics in today's business world. Globally, this is a very low amount of time, and many nations, including Canada, offer a longer leave (more than 12 weeks) and pay their employees.
Basic health-care plans cover hospitalization, physician care, and surgery. Traditional fee-for-service health care coverage became increasingly expensive in the late twentieth century. As a result, many companies adopted managed health care plans (private healthcare). In general, managed care plans cut health care costs for employers by requiring them to contract with health care providers to perform medical services for their employees at an agreed upon fee schedule.
Pensions,or retirement incomes, may be the largest single benefit most employees receive. In most instances, employees become eligible to participate in company pension schemes when they reach 21 years of age and have completed one year of service.
Many employers offer flexible benefit plans, also known as cafeteria plans. These plans allow employees to choose among various benefits and levels of coverage. Such plans enable employees to choose options that best fit their own needs. New workers, for example, may prefer cash; parents may prefer subsidized childcare and older workers may decide to increase their pension and health care coverage.
, .1. .
1. Every year I get five weeks off. _________________________________
2. I dont pay any medical bills. __________________________________
3. I dont think about it now, but it will be very useful when I am 60. _____
4. Its a really important benefit for women who want a family. __________
5. My daughter is preparing for school at the moment, so its great to have help with this. ______________________________________________________
3. :
1. What is a benefit?
2. What benefits do employees have in companies, apart from their salary?
3. Which benefits constitute the group of legally required benefits?
4. Which benefits are of great importance for couples who are intended to have children?
5. What do flexible benefit plans mean?
, , .
1. Fill in an application form
2. Go for an interview
3. Find a job advertisement on the companys website
4. To be shortlisted for interview
5. Update the CV (resume)
