What Other Job Benefits Should You Look For?
How much you get paid for a job is, first and foremost, absolutely crucial for building the life you want and advancing your future wealth. But that doesn’t mean salary should be the only perk you look out for. What makes my current job a good job is more than just the high salary; the job benefits to look for outside of my paycheck are also important reasons for why I like my role as much as I do. Here I’ll be transparent about my other job benefits so you’ll know what else to look for as part of your compensation package.
Again, salary is just one part of your total compensation package. While it’s the most important reason to take a job in most circumstances, there are other perks to the job open to negotiation and comparison.
Salary, the Dollar Bills
Yeah duh. Until and unless we have solid social safety nets in place, the job pay has THE most significant impact to your bottom line of “surviving/thriving/homelessness prevention”. It’s also the #1 perk that employers expect to negotiate with their employees and new hires. That makes it one of the easiest job benefits to negotiate or look for. It’s definitely helped me – my current base salary is $95k, which means I’m pulling in almost eight grand a month.
Pay Bonus
Bonus structures are sometimes lumped together with your base pay as a way to lure you in. For legit roles, it could be a huge boon. I’ve seen that in my current role, which had me getting paid an extra $13k in bonuses this year… and last year, to boot. Go for the bonuses! But if it’s a choice between a bonus and a base salary, I’d go with the base salary. Bonuses are a job benefit that can easily be taken away for a number of reasons, whether that’s due to poor company performance, execs playing games with the budget, or BS excuses that you didn’t earn the bonus you were counting on. It’s an excellent perk, just keep in mind it’s inferior to a salary boost.
Health Insurance
Instead of America having free health insurance, like 150 other countries already manage, they tie it to employment. That sucks and we’re getting screwed by that awful situation. Thanks to that, health insurance is one of the other job benefits to look for instead of being a basic right. Anyway, there’s some nuance to this health insurance consideration as many employers will offer you a choice of different plans. Some are more expensive than others and, thus, give you different things in the event you require medical care.
In my case, I have my choice of multiple plans under Tufts. In my opinion (and those of a few coworkers) these plans are not very good. At my old job I had phenomenal health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts that paid for everything… and that I didn’t need to pay extra to have. Those were the days! Goes to show health insurance offerings vary a ton from job to job.
The other pseudo-health insurances matter, too.
This variance also extends to vision and dental insurance. Historically they’ve been treated as separate things despite it ALL having to do with your health and well-being (sigh). These still aren’t great for me as there are only crappy dentists in-network, and if I want to get a cavity filled at my preferred dentist that’ll cost $300. Vision is okay, as I get 1 free appointment with my preferred eye doctor.
I also supposedly get short- and long-term disability insurance and life insurance; this kicks in should I encounter anything that impedes my ability to work and, therefore, make income. However, I’ve heard other coworkers were denied these benefits when push came to shove. If disability insurance is important to you, make that a priority in your job benefits to look for.
Vacation and Sick Days
As I’ve said before, the United States chose the coward’s route and has never implemented a minimum amount of vacation days for employees. Since that’s left up to employers, who are biased against anything that cuts down on potential profits, vacation time is abysmal when compared to countries who have more of their shit together.
With all of that said, my company has a rocking vacation policy, with conditions. It’s currently an unlimited vacation policy; I can theoretically take time off for quite a few weeks as long as I have approval from my manager. That “with conditions” I put there is because that rocking vacation policy is rocking ONLY because I have a manager who is happy to give me whatever time off I request. If my manager was more stingy about this, this would be a different story. This policy has been updated from when I first joined the company in 2019; back then the agreement was I could take up to 3 weeks off.
Ditto the above for sick days – if I’m sick I’m sick, my manager understands and place no limits on how many days I need to spend recovering. This was a godsend when I caught COVID back in December. This would likely look different if I took advantage of either policy, as my manager takes care of her underlings but also Takes No Shit. I’d count vacation and sick days as best when it’s either:
- a formal policy shrouded in so much respect your bosses would never play with it, or
- under a benevolent boss who can, and will, go to bat for you to take the rest you seek
Retirement Accounts
Dude. Having access to retirement accounts in your 20s is the best thing ever. This means there are investment accounts that do not get taxed like other accounts do. Since you’re at the start of your career, that’s going to have the biggest impact now instead of at any other point for the rest of your life. Take advantage of all the accounts! 401(k)s, HSAs, ALL OF IT.
My current role was the first one I had with access to a 401(k); I’ve maxed out in 2020 and 2021. Until recently, my one gripe with this was that I didn’t also get a 401(k) match. That was a gripe I shared with many other, more vocal employees, so at long last my company is giving us a match starting this July!
Since I max out that account, that means I automatically get another $4,000 or thereabouts straight into my coffers. I don’t know about you, but I can do a lot with an extra four grand. 401(k) matches are one of the ideal job benefits to look for if you’ve got the disposable income for it!
Having access to a health savings account (HSA) is extra nice. Mine is through a shitty company Insperity, who keep taking out $3 a month for “fees” which I despise. However, that triple tax advantage of having such an account is what keeps me coming back.
Remote Opportunity
I LOVE WORKING FROM HOME. FULL STOP. No commute means extra time in the day to myself while also minimizing my chance of passing/catching diseases while surrounded by fellow commuters of unknown hygienic standards. I don’t get distracted by random conversations around me and don’t have to go through the hassle of packing my lunch or figuring out where I should order from. Best of all, working remote might open the door to working abroad and extending your travel time, if you so wish. That’s what I did and how I’m currently in my second week of exploring Europe. Having the opportunity to work remote is one of the phenomenal job benefits to look for, as it’s one that employees are finally open to granting.
Now it’s draining to be in an office. My company keeps pushing for people to come back in but very few actually are. My team’s VP likes us coming in once a week, so it’s normally the 4 or 5 of us in one corner of an empty office. They don’t like mask wearing, either. I’m positive that I can switch to 100% remote if I move too far to regularly commute, like I’d be in Vermont. Even if you can score one more day working from home, that’s going to make a great difference for the better.
Company Equity
It’s generally startups and other early-stage, techy companies that offer this as part of your compensation package. I randomly got company equity that vests over a series of five years. This means I only get 100% of this equity if I stay for that long. I got this equity via stock shares that will turn into money if/when my company either goes public or gets acquired.
If you’re like me and get equity pre-acquisition/IPO, they’re not worth anything just yet. Could become a lot of money, could become worthless. If you strongly believe in the value of your company, I’d say requesting equity is great. Just have an exit strategy in place for when this is valuable; my tentative one right now is to immediately sell 80% of my equity and keep 20%, just in case it takes off.
Working Hours
In all three of my post-college roles thus far, I have never found myself putting in 50 or 60 hours of work in week after week. The less amount of time you need to put in at work, the higher your effective hourly rate is. Better yet, spending less time at work means more time banked back to you.
Currently, not many employers are willing to negotiate a smaller work week for young professionals. At least, not officially. It’s very possible to still have a smaller work week if you calculate how much time you expect to be performing your duties each week and see if that will fill a full 40 hours. In my first role at a real estate firm, the hours were stupid easy. In my role after that, also easy. And in my current, super cushy role? Hours have never been better. If work/life balance is a priority for you, understanding your working hours is a crucial job benefit to evaluate.
The Little Things
Companies might surprise you with some random, but super cool, job benefits you rarely see elsewhere. If you come in to work from the office at my company, there are some other neat perks. Free lunch, either delivered via the lunch program or paid for with your corporate card. I am a great fan of my corporate card, which is another neat job benefit in and of itself.
Free in-office snacks are probably the cheapest job benefit to look for that makes a difference. When I’m in the office I like to pop into the kitchen for Greek yogurt, hummus packs, and Goldfish pretzels. They also have all kinds of chips and granola bars. This doesn’t mean as much to me as free food doesn’t come close to beating working from home.
Lastly, one very neat perk is that we frequently get the chance to go see a professional game. The CEO has corporate seats at Fenway and TD Garden and Gillette Stadium, so when he’s not going (which is often, the man is busy) his assistant sends out an email saying game seats are up for grabs. So far I’ve taken advantage to get close seats for the Celtics and the Red Sox. One of these days I’ll get in on the Bruins too, but not until the pandemic recedes a lot more!
What’s Negotiable?
More than just your salary is negotiable! Vacation days are one of the most flexible; if they don’t think they can manage without you for your desired vacation time, tell them it sounds like you’re indispensable and you want a raise to reflect that. If you’re not getting one of the perks on this list that you do want, it’s time to embrace the adage “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. My employer only (finally!) agreed to offer a 401(k) match because my fellow employees have consistently asked for it in meetings and on employee surveys. In these Great Resignation times, you’ve got more leeway than ever before to request better job benefits.
Cover image credit: Benjamin Wong via Unsplash
Those are great observations. Benefits can be a huge addition to your ability to build wealth. As a chemical engineer keeping up with the latest tech in my field was huge and one of the benefits you didn’t mention was my favorite. I was sent to usually three different week long seminars/training events at destination locations like San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Boston, etc. where the top world leaders in their technologies would teach us cutting edge developments. These cost several thousand dollars each in tuition along with expensive travel and lodging it top tier hotels and unlimited expense accounts. They were terrified of losing me and figured out early on the best way to keep me was to keep me very marketable. It seems paradoxical but the best way to be satisfied at work is to know you can simply pick up the phone and have ten job offers in a week. An employee who feels they aren’t keeping up in their field is the one who will be forced to leave. The way over six figures they spent training me throughout my career was worth millions in extra income as I rose through the company. Extensive, off-site and continual training is a huge benefit because it provides world class contacts and hones your skills to set you apart from others. I also got my share of six figure bonuses and stock appreciation rights and good matched 401K plans, but the training is what really empowered my ability to earn more. Fortunately that was before this epidemic era and you could safely be face to face with others from all over the world, it would not have been nearly as fun if it had happened by Zoom.
Thanks for adding this Steve – training is a HUGE perk!! I didn’t include it here as I don’t currently get such a perk in my current role, but hope to at some point.
YUP. Benefits can really be the determining factor for whether a job is truly worthwhile. Personally, my work is boring and my pay is just okay. But my benefits make it very, very hard to consider leaving (at least right now). Between the paid health insurance premiums, retirement matching with immediate vesting, and the three weeks of paid vacation + 10 holidays + nobody questioning my sick days, I feel like I ended up with a pretty good deal.