I work for the state govt as an attorney. The pay is ok, and you get pretty regular raises as long as you’re doing good work. The legislative raises have been good lately- got 5% and another $5k last year, the budget proposal has a 3% this year. The state puts in 9.67% of my monthly salary into my investment account (I chose that instead of a pension). Health insurance for me and spouse is $80/mo pre-tax. About 3.5-4 weeks of paid vacation a year, which increases after you’ve been there 5 years. About 2.5 weeks paid sick leave/year, they roll over also. 13 paid holidays with a few “admin” half days before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Free tuition at state schools, which I’ve used to take dance, photography, and Spanish classes! Travel reimbursement for distant courthouses or jail. And currently 1 WFH day, but advocating for more! No weekends, work 8-430 M-F.

I’ve worked with places that have lots of different “wellness” benefits, but this is worth thousands and thousands of dollars to me each year. I can pay for my own gym membership!

I mean, obviously this is a nice benefit, but why not just give it to you as cash in the form of salary? Is there some sort of tax advantage doing it this way?

I work for the feds too, and my favorite perk is the leave. I get basically 4 weeks a year of vacation (which goes up to 6 weeks for me in a few more years), never have issues with running out of sick leave, and love the new paid parental leave. I just got back from a 22 week maternity leave, and didn’t even touch my 4 weeks of vacation for this year.

The other benefits seem pretty consistent with what I had in private practice. The few transit benefits is nice, but only saves me less than $100 a month.

Yeah, I would never want this. We get three weeks PTO (vacation time only, not inclusive of sick leave) and that’s more than enough for me. At every job I’ve been at I get paid out at the end anyway because I never use it all.