There was an interesting thread on Reddit a while ago about job perks — readers, what employee benefits and perks does your company offer, and how are you optimizing these perks? There are, after all, a TON of them out there — I was blown away compiling this list!! — and there's a lot of money involved.

In the past, we've discussed how many vacation days we get, and tech budgets, and (eons ago) we had a guest post from my friend Sue on how she saves $10,000 a year by maxing out her work benefits, including her flex-spending account, commuter spending account, and dependent care spending account… but we haven't talked about employee benefits and perks too much. So let's discuss!

Here are the questions:

• Which of the following perks do you get automatically?
• Which perks were not automatic — you needed to be employed there for a certain amount of time, you had to get to a certain level within the company, you negotiated something different than your coworkers, etc.
• How do you find information about perks and benefits — word of mouth? Is there a portal, or just an HR department, or just lengthy paperwork you got on Day 1?
• Have you negotiated for any of these perks (either for a new job or as part of a promotion)? If you were choosing among multiple job offers (such as after finishing law school or grad school), how much did the employee benefits factor into your equation?
• What employee benefit or perk is your favorite? Will you try to negotiate for it if/when you leave your current company?
• What would your advice be to someone just starting who has the same perks you have?

Employee Benefits & Perks You Might Be Getting

Stuff You Probably Know About

• remote / hybrid policies and arrangements
• vacation days, “closed office” holidays, half-day Fridays, sick leave, and other PTO
• fully paid or discounted health insurance: You probably don't even identify this as a benefit unless you're comparing your employer's plan to the marketplace. I was surprised by how many people in the Reddit post said their health insurance is 100% paid by their company, often for the employee and dependents, sometimes the employee's entire family!)
• 401k contribution or match (or a pension): Some companies contribute 3% (for example) automatically, regardless of whether or not the employees contribute to their 401k; others will match up to a specific dollar amount.
• professional development funds / education reimbursement
• access to a Flexible Spending Account or a Health Savings Account
• signing bonuses, year-end bonuses, other bonuses
• company stock or equity: Sometimes “phantom stock benefits” — one Redditor described it as shares appointed that have no value unless the company goes public one day, but it seems like the phrase typically means a form of compensation that tracks the company's actual stock, but without giving equity in the company, as described in this Smart Asset article.
• relocation package or reimbursement for moving expenses (One friend's relocation package even included broker help with selling their home!)
• Employee Assistance Programs: You may not know that EAPs typically provide more than mental health services. Offerings may also include legal advice, assistance with financial issues, referrals to childcare and other family supports, and more.

Other Health-Related Perks

• free or discounted therapy sessions
• Health Advocate services
• executive physicals (such as those mentioned in this PartnerMD article)
• free/discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass memberships
• disability benefits
• life insurance policies
• “earned perks” such as $25 if you walk 10,000 steps or work out for 30 minutes for X days in a particular month
• pet health insurance

Note also that employers can often choose what the company plan will and will not cover, or create different tiers of employees. For example, one of my employers did not cover birth control pills (until the women rioted, ha) — and there's been a lot in the news lately about whether insurance plans cover weight loss drugs)

Parental and Family Planning Job Perks

• maternity and paternity leave: Note that the FMLA only applies if your company employs 50+ people.
• on-site daycare or childcare stipend
• dependent care flexible savings accounts (such as those described by this Investopedia article)
• family planning reimbursement (e.g., freezing your eggs)
• bereavement leave (sometimes pet bereavement leave, also!)

{related: How to Negotiate Future Maternity Leave Before You're Even Pregnant}

Benefits You Can Taste

• snacks, soda, juice, etc., in the breakroom
• discounted / free office cafeteria for lunch
• reimbursement for dinner when working late / on weekends

Moving Fast: Job Perks for Travel

• cars home when working late / on weekends
• travel perks, upgrading your airline and hotel statuses
• reimbursement (partial or full) for mass transit, parking, gas

Mo' Money: Smaller Job Benefits

• tech reimbursement or “remote work stipends”
• discounted rates on mobile phone services, home internet, equipment such as iPhones
• discounted tickets (theater, theme parks, etc.) and museum memberships
• “cool office” perks: game rooms, private movie rooms, kombucha-on-tap, etc.
• company merch

Stock photo via Deposit Photos / zimmytws.

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For those of you who have negotiated (or renegotiated) job perks and more, how do you think things have changed in the past few years? If you're on the hiring side, what requests seem to be more common these days? (For the hiring peeps: Are there any common requests that always strike you as ridiculous?)

In the past we've talked about

• Negotiating a great salary and other benefits (as well as some other less common benefits, like a tech budget — it may also be helpful to know what vacation benefits others get).
• Negotiating flexible work arrangements, like reduced work hours and/or selling a reluctant boss on remote work (that last link was written a few years ago, though, so I'm guessing it's much easier than it was!).
• How to save $10K a year by using job benefits (and which ones to look at when you're negotiating).
• Whether you can negotiate future maternity leave (before you're pregnant)

What other types of things are negotiating right now? Readers are having an interesting threadjack this morning about negotiating travel requirements (particularly in light of Dobbs); you may also be negotiating how much face time is required in the office, if at all.

Let's hear from you guys — how do you think job negotiations have changed recently?

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post The New Job Negotiations appeared first on Corporette.com.

I don’t think we’ve had this conversation in a few years, so let’s discuss: What “vacation time” comes with your job? What happens if you don’t take the time? How much time have you taken off in recent years, as a percentage of what you're eligible for? (If your company allows remote work, do remote workers have the same vacation time packages/expectations as in-office workers?)

I’ve seen four main kinds of paid vacation days given by companies:

Earn your vacation time: You have to work to earn your vacation time. At a smaller office, a newer hire may be prohibited from taking extensive vacations, especially around holidays, as more senior members get first pick of when they’ll take time off. Sick days may “blend” a bit with vacation. (I just saw someone tweeting about how she had worked a zillion days straight while trying to “save up” for her maternity leave. Whee!)

Use it or lose it: Your company may give you a set number of days for vacation — and if you don’t use it you’ll lose it. In my experience, people with these packages are the ones who take vacations the most, even if they’re just restful staycations, because it’s part of the company culture that everyone takes that number of days off.

Rolling over vacation time: Some companies grant a set number of vacation days, and those vacation days can roll over from one year into the next if they go unused. This can be ideal in a situation like a pandemic, where travel can be difficult — but also if you want to bank your days, either for a big trip (honeymoon!) or to extend a limited maternity leave, especially with a small company where FMLA doesn't apply.

”Unlimited” vacation days: These benefits SEEM like they'll be amazing at first because, woohoo, unlimited vacation! But in my experience a lot of people in these jobs take less vacation than people with limited vacation days. I think this happens for a few reasons, the biggest of which comes to company culture — without the “use it or lose it” mentality, a lot of people just don’t take vacation. (On the flip side, I know one friend of a friend who's the top executive at a hospital who has taken probably 10 weeks of vacation between January 2021 and now … so if you can actually take it, good for you!) If you have unlimited vacation days, I'd love to hear how many you take, and what a “reasonable number of vacation days” is (unofficially) among your coworkers.

So let's discuss, readers: What do your vacation benefits look like? Does your office or team have rules (written or otherwise) on who can go on vacation at what time? Finally, how much vacation have you taken in recent years (and how much are you planning to take over the next 12 months or so)?

Stock photo via Stencil.

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Something we haven't talked about in a while is tech budgets — do you have a tech stipend through your job? What is your tech budget, and what have you spent it on in 2020? Has your office been supporting work from home in other ways, such as loaning out equipment or providing tech help?

When I was at my law firm, we had something like $1,000 tech stipend per year. Most people I know used it for bigger monitors, or better Blackberry models (and yes, I'm dating myself).

These days, I would probably put it toward some of the other stuff we've recommended here to help you set up a great home office, including things like:

• ergonomic keyboards (I love this one)
• bigger (or more!) monitors
• ways to improve your WiFi, such as through Orbi
• I'd probably put money towards a better laptop or desktop if you could fund a partial purchase, but if that wasn't an option I'd consider a Chromebook, particularly if you spend a lot of time on Zoom meetings or using web-based services (or, hey, if household members like your kids do). If you have a Surface I'd love to hear your experience! There was a lot of Lenova Yoga 2-in-1 love in our last discussion on favorite apps and gadgets, too.. 

{related: how to shop for a new PC}

But I'm curious to hear from you guys, particularly if your office is encouraging you to work from home — how are they supporting you during this time period? Do you have a specific budget for tech or home office, and what is your tech budget? What have you spent it on?

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post What Is Your Tech Budget? (Do You Have One?) appeared first on Corporette.com.

Readers, what are your best tips on how to negotiate future maternity leave benefits, such as before you get pregnant or even in the job interview? SHOULD you? I've gotten a number of questions about this recently, and I thought it might be an interesting topic. We've talked about how to announce your pregnancy at work, how to survive your first trimester, and how to leave an “out of the office” message for maternity leave — but not this. (Pictured.)

{related: tips for designing your maternity leave}

I have a few thoughts on this:

a) I really wish this is something that ALL women asked about. Heck, all PEOPLE asked about. Not only is it incredibly important for the family dynamic, but for the workplace dynamic too. If you don't plan to get pregnant but work in a small office with lots of younger women — know that everyone else's maternity leave may affect your work burden as well. If you DO plan to get pregnant, you should know your rights — particularly if you should be so lucky to weight multiple job offers. Of course: plans change. And, of course: no one wants to bring it up in a job interview.

b) The proper way to do it, I suppose, is to inquire about health benefits. When do they kick in? What is considered a preexisting condition? Do you have any disability coverage? (You may want to consider getting some yourself, before you get pregnant, in case bed rest is required or something during the pregnancy itself.) And in the midst of all that, ask about maternity leave benefits.

c) Know your rights before you go in. As Parents.com notes, “The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 grants all parents the same 12 weeks (it's all considered family leave for fathers and adoptive parents). You can begin the 12 weeks before you give birth, but then you'll have less time afterward.” The FMLA only applies to companies with at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. (So: consider asking how many employees work at the company during the initial interview stage.)

d) If you negotiate at all, try to negotiate for extra paid vacation time (perhaps that rolls over every year), as suggested in this WSJ article.

Readers — have you negotiated maternity leave (either for future maternity leave benefits, or right before you went on leave)? For those of you in smaller offices (particularly those outside the FMLA guidelines), what does maternity leave look like for you and/or your coworkers?

Some of the best books for working mothers include:

Updated images via Deposit Photos / Seetwo. FB images via Stencil (woman holds image of ultrasound against a pink blanket).

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What is the best way to evaluate your benefits package at work? When it comes to money, the true savings are never in the tiny things — they're in the big things like your healthcare plan and your investments. My old friend Sue is a master at all of this hard personal finance stuff — I've asked her to share some of her knowledge with us today. You can follow her on Twitter at @suziedonuts if you want more great tips! – Kat.

Yes yes, you know how to clip coupons and shop sales. But there are two problems with this approach: First, it takes too much time for not enough payout, so you’re practically doomed to failure before you begin; and second, you’ve heard it all before, so if you’re not doing it by now, you’re not going to do it tomorrow. Plus, being frugal requires constant vigilance. I’m not saying it’s not worthwhile, because it is; but especially when you’ve got a healthy cash flow coming in, you have to put dollars before cents.

In honor of the original title for this series (Tales from the Wallet)… here's a great wallet!

First you need to make sure you are fully maximizing your savings the big stuff, and not necessarily the stuff you read about. The big savings can be found in your workplace benefits and your investment accounts. The tips below will help you shave up to $10,000 off your expenses.

(Note: For simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume in these examples that you are making $150,000, are married filing jointly with one dependent, and are living in New York state.)

Saving at Your Work: $3,576+

Whenever you start a new job, HR gives you a giant info packet. Grab a cup of coffee and dig in. A good benefits package is worth its weight in gold. At a large company, the benefits might include perks such as:

– Free admission to major museums in your city

– Discounted rates on mobile phone service, banking, childcare, and insurance

– Health Advocate services (I can’t say enough good things about these guys)

– Flex spending accounts

Sure, the museum and gym perks are nice, and I’ve used them. A lot. But the real savings for me has been in the boring stuff.

Let’s say you are spending $500/month on groceries, and you cut your food spending by 50% by shopping sales and using coupons. That’s $3,000 a year. And it’s a pain in the neck to do. Believe me, I’ve done it. I’ve got the coupon organizer and the deep freezer and the stacks of sales circulars. I even wrote up a grocery price book, although that’s a whole other post. Suffice it to say, there’s a reason that most of the women on Extreme Couponing are stay-at-home moms.

Alternately, you can save almost $3,500 a year just by finding tax-advantaged ways to do the same stuff you’d do anyway – namely, by using the flex-spending accounts that your company may already be offering. In our example, you’ll save 34% by using flex accounts:
– $1,700 savings: Flex Spending Account for medical out-of-pocket ($2,500/year per worker @ 34%) – just be sure to “use it or lose it” each year
– $1,876 savings: Commuter Spending Account for mass-transit passes or parking ($2,760/year per worker @ 34%)
– BONUS ROUND: $1,700 savings: Dependent Care Spending Account for daycare or preschool ($5,000/year per household @ 34%)
Source: Bankrate.com 125 Cafeteria Plan Calculator

During Benefits Season in November, set up your flex accounts for the year. Then, take the afternoon off and visit your local museum on the company’s dime; you deserve it.

Saving with Your Investments: $6,721

With all that extra cash, you can front-load a 529 plan, which can be used for educational spending for yourself and then handed off to your children when the time comes. In New York, you can deposit up to $10,000 a year state-tax-free into the New York 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan, which is administered by Vanguard. In this example, maxing out the 529 will save you another $738 in taxes this year. Not to mention, the money grows tax-free. If that $10k sat in the 529 for 18 years, growing at 7%, you’d save $5,497 in taxes versus using your regular brokerage account.

Source: Bankrate.com 529 College-Savings-Plan Estimator

There have been countless books written on investing. I’m not going to tell you how to invest, but please, make sure you pay as few fees as possible. I’m a Boglehead myself. I make a regular contribution to an index fund every month; if the market tanks, I increase my contribution as much as I can stand it. Since I put in relatively small amounts each time, I want to minimize my commission fees (the price you pay per trade) and my expense ratios (the % the fund charges annually for maintenance). So I stick to index funds from discount brokerages like Vanguard or Schwab, which have very low expense ratios. You can open a brokerage account at Schwab with as little as $100. (Vanguard’s minimum is $3,000.) You also should never have to pay a commission fee when buying an index fund.

Schwab’s expense ratio for its Total Stock Market Index Fund (SWTSX) is 0.09% as of this writing. The Morningstar industry average is 0.38%. If you invest $500 a month with Schwab, you save $174 a year in fees.

You can also link your Schwab brokerage account to its High Yield Investor Checking account, which is truly free checking – Schwab even reimburses all ATM fees. At two, $3 trips a week, that’s $312 a year in fees.

The Long View: Break a Million Without Breaking a Sweat

Based on the above examples, a married couple with children could save as much as $6,500 a year. What does that get you in the long run?

Let’s say you’re 30 now. If you invest that $6,500 in an index fund making just 7% annually (because that 10% figure you always see thrown around is so 2007), you’ll be a millionaire by age 65. All without clipping a single coupon.

Source: Bankrate Simple Savings Calculator

Readers, are you maximizing your money with all of these big picture items? What are your best tips with the big picture items?

These are some of our latest favorite financial books for beginners:

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