Employee Benefits

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Employee benefits are a tool used by businesses to attract potential applicants, improve employee satisfaction, reduce turnover and maintain competition. Benefits that most employers offer include but are not limited to medical and dental coverage, time away from work, retirement, and additional assistance during life changing events. The majority of employers in the United States offer benefits to their employees and include an annual enrollment yearly to select benefits and make any needed changes.

Most view medical and dental coverage as the most important option within their benefits package. Medical coverage usually includes doctors visits, prescriptions, dental and eye care. Medical coverage allows an employee to visit a doctor covered under their health care package at an extremely discounted rate. A regular doctor's visit usually is around fifteen dollars and a specialist is slightly more ranging from twenty-five to thirty dollars under the plan. Employees also have a set rate for prescriptions included in the plan as well, prescription prices can range based on the type of drug and decreasing in price if a generic version is offered. Dental coverage consists of discounted trips to the dentist and a price tag amount for additional issues such as braces and more extensive procedures. Coverage for eye care varies for most companies; it usually covers one eye exam a year along with a credit for lenses and frames once a year. An employee will select a health care plan that fit their needs and cover what they believe will be needed for the upcoming year. (Sprint 2005)

Time away from work can be grouped into several categories including vacation time, paid holidays, sick time, FMLA, workman's compensation and other life changing events. The most popular form of time off is vacation time, this is typically a time that

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has to be scheduled off in advance and the time allotted is determined based on employee seniority. The amount of vacation an employee may receive is determined by many factors in the company such as the industry, organization size and locale. Companies tend to offer one to two weeks for employees after they have had a position for one year, and once the position has been held for five or more years the employee will receive an additional allotment of scheduled time off. Paid holidays are nationally observed holidays such as New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; an employee would normally get this day off with pay or if asked to work would receive additional compensation for working on the holiday. Sick time is for the unexpected time of illness and is generally something that an employee would have to "call out" for, thus notifying their manager that they will not make it to work for that day. Sick time consists of one week or forty hours and can be scattered through out the year. (Bohlander 479) FMLA or Family Medical Leave of Absence is considered an excused absence in the event there is an illness in the family or a health condition with ones self, and the birth of a child. FMLA is something that is doctor approved and an employee obtains a certain amount of hours to use per year. FMLA can be an option that you are not paid for or may require that an employee use vacation time in order to take time off for these emergencies. Workman's compensation consists of laws that were passed to cover the employee if they should have a work related injury that prevents them from fulfilling their job duties. During the time out of work an employee will receive normal pay while recovering and possible disability if unable to return to the workforce. (Personnel 2005). Other events that an employee would be covered for while away from

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work include jury duty summons and bereavement. Jury duty will typically consist of serving on a county or state jury and most employers will reimburse an employee for a normal days work. Bereavement is in the event an immediate family member passes away the employer will allow a worker time away from work to attend the funeral and handle their grief.(Sprint 2005) The majority of all corporations as well as most businesses offer all or most of the time off options listed which allows their employees to handle daily life un-expectancies as well as take much needed time off after their job is done.

Planning for ones future is very important and employers know this is an option all employees want to take advantage of. Employers offer several ways an employee can plan for their future including 401k and pension plans. 401k is an employer-sponsored