Employee Benefits

Employees benefits refer to health life insurance, retirement plans, life insurance, disability insurance, employee stock ownership plans and vacation. Employee benefits are increasingly expensive for organizations to offer to employees. Range and options of employee benefits is drastically changing. These benefits are in form of value rather than payment offered to employees in return for their good contribution and work to the organization. Some of the benefits such as workers’ compensation and unemployment are federally needed.

Workers compensation is a right compared to benefit. Paid off is a feature in some employees agreement which offer resources of hours those employees can draw from to take off from work without ant specified reason. The paid time off hours cover everything from planned vacations to the sick days. Those organizations with plans of paid time off don’t separate time off from work between vacation days and sick days (Mountain States Employers Council, 1977, p. 48). Practices of Paid Time Off (PTO)

To the health employees paid off time is an attractive benefit since they are offered more vacation time under the paid off time plan than they would under plan that differentiates sick leave and vacation. Many companies have moved from sick leaves and vacations as an employee benefit and embarked on paid off time. Paid off time involves a bank of hours from which employees can draw. Employees are given additional hours every paid time. Under the paid time off plan, employees are credited with 30 days which are paid time off instead of sick leave and vacation.

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The concept of paid time off is good ideas which makes many companies more attractive to prospective employees and makes it easier to retain current employees through increasing number of days which they can take off from work and at the same time receive their payment (Josh, 2005, p. 45). Paid off time although is a good idea of encouraging and maintaining employees it is a program which call for abuse. Since many organizations no longer know why their employees take time off and they don’t officially care why, employees are frequently moving. This can be controlled by having prior approval of the paid time off.

Those employees who don’t make use of full allotment of sick leave definitely use their paid time off every year. Most employers know that their employee require a break at a while. This is why many organizations are offering paid time off in form of holidays, vacations, sick leave and personal leave. Some employers offers a specified amount of days for every from of paid time off while others especially in financial and healthcare organizations offer a uniform amount of days off which can be used for various reasons at discretion of employees.

Employers give employees time off and chance to deal with issued which are non-work related. Regardless of the high costs of paid time off, most organizations offer this employee-friendly benefit mainly to be competitive in attracting and retaining talented employees (Eastern, 2001, p. 102). Vacations Paid vacation time is voluntary benefit to employees offered by organization. No federal rules governing employers to offer vacation days but this is a common practice in business which attracts new employees and helps business in retention of employees making organization competitive.

Employees accrue more hours which are paid vacation at a certain rate for each day worked. Different organizations apply different formulas in calculating vacation time to be given to employees. Those employees with fifteen days of paid vacation time at one organization may or may not enjoy the same number of paid vacation days after changing job. The amount of paid vacation depends on the level of organization and length of services they offer. Usually organizations have a certain level which determines how many paid vacation days employee will receive.

For example, four to five weeks of vacation is not improbable for employee who remains with the organization for more than fifteen years, even if this is typically the maximum level for vacation benefits in country like United States (Healthfield, 2009). Most employers base vacation days on anniversary date of employment while others use year calendar to keep on track. Exempt employees should get same rate of salary paid for vacation days. Incase one is exempted and take two weeks of paid vacation, then should get salary for the same amount to those two weeks as if s/he worked.

Some organizations allow their employees to transfer the unused vacation days over to the next year of calendar. Different organizations have different policies but normally employees may carry over five days. Not all organizations make cash payments for vacation days which are not taken by end of their calendar year. Incase an employee leaves a company, the organization is mandated to compensate for those unused vacation days in cash. Some organizations use prorated payout which is in matches with number of accrued services in a given year. Those employees who work part-time are also often given paid vacation days.

The paid rate may be different from employees’ base paid rate (Mountain States Employers Council, 1977, p. 51). Holidays Many organizations mostly offer nine or ten days per year as public holiday although there is no specified standard. Legal public holidays are recognized but not all employers observe them. Some employers observe state and local holidays in addition to federal holidays. Many organizations reserve right to schedule working hours during holidays. This is mostly applicable in those true organizations such as law enforcement, hospitals and emergency agencies.

There are other special situations which forces employers to keep their employees at work during holidays. Those employees who are scheduled to work during holidays are compensated at a premium. Many organizations which deal with food and retail services have found it profitable to remain working during holidays although they may provide limited hours. For extra holidays, most employers and employee make arrangements. Governed by laws, employers can not prevent employee from observing religious holidays. Normal arrangement may take day off without paid (Healthfield, 2009).

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