Employers are doing more now than pre-pandemic to attract and retain top talent, which gives you a great opportunity to find yourself a stellar employee benefits package.
“One of the great things about the last 18 months is that prospective employees are really stepping into their power, and using the negotiation power that they do have in this tight job market, and I think that’s fantastic,” salary negotiation coach Kate Dixon says.
Your employee benefits package is basically everything you’re getting in exchange for your work and time, in addition to your salary or wage: health care coverage, retirement plans, paid time off, parental leave, etc. There are a ton of job benefits to look for when you’re job hunting. Of course, if you don’t have a lot of experience—or if you don’t have a reliable coach or consultant to help you—it’s hard to know if the benefits are good or even typical.
Thanks to the internet, increasing transparency from companies, and peoples’ willingness to share, there’s more information than ever to help you understand what kind of employee benefits package you can get—and learn what you really want. To do that, today we’ll cover the following:
When evaluating job benefits, it’s important to remember they vary greatly from company to company and industry to industry.
“I think it’s really challenging to describe what a standard or good or better or best kind of package is because they can be all over the place depending on the type of company it is, the size, whether it’s a startup or not,” Dixon says. “Something that would be really great at a startup might not be all that great at a well-established corporation. I don’t love saying ‘it’s normal to get two weeks vacation,’ for example, because it depends.”
That said, when you’re starting from scratch, every bit of info counts. There are a handful of places you can use for research.
“Most progressive companies provide a glimpse of certain benefits offered to employees on their career pages. I would start there,” career coach and HR leader Tiffani Murray says. “There are also now a number of career sites, apps, or resources where you can search a company to see what current and former employees have said about the compensation and benefits package.”
Here are a few places to check out:
“If you are contacted by a recruiter for a phone screen or interview, ask them if they are able to provide a benefits overview for you to review,” Murray says. “This is a standard request and won't raise any red flags. The benefits overview will be less detailed than the benefits package you will receive upon getting an offer, but you should be able to get a general sense of what the company has in place from the overview.”
Pulling those resources, here are some typical expected employee benefits and their recent average offerings in the U.S.
Medical insurance, vision, dental, and often long- and short-term disability, life, a health savings account or something similar.
Average: The average employer contribution toward health care premiums in 2020 was 83 percent for single plans and 74 percent for family coverage. That leaves employees paying an average of $1,243 a year for single-plan premiums and $5,588 for family.
Average: In 2022, the average paid time off that new employees receive is 13 days per year (not including sick days). That goes up to 15 for employees who have worked at the company for more than a year, up to 20 days at five years, and up from there.
Average: The average matching percentage was about 4.5 percent in 2020.
Average: The average, paid or unpaid, in the United States is 10 weeks.
As finding great employees becomes even more competitive, companies are sweetening the deal with some of these newer benefits. You can look for companies known to offer the ones you are most interested in.
You should expect to see some kind of wellness initiatives in employee benefits packages at most established companies. Typically, it’s a monthly stipend you can spend on gym membership or fitness classes. But if health is high on your priority list, you can find companies with much more, like acupuncture, mental health services, medical-related online courses for weight loss or smoking cessation, and on-site screenings.
Another trend picking up in the past five years or so is unlimited PTO. The number of unlimited PTO policies offered nearly tripled from 2015–19.
The thing to note here, Dixon says, is to do your research to make sure an “unlimited PTO” company doesn’t discourage its employees from taking their deserved time.
“There are cultural norms about how much vacation people actually take,” Dixon says. “Most companies that do that unlimited vacation or unlimited paid time off, they’re upfront about it, because it’s a great selling point for them. So that’s something to ask in the interview process, to ask peers or your potential manager, “well, how much vacation do people actually take?,” because depending on the organization, it could be normal to take two weeks, it could be normal to take less than two weeks, it could be normal to take four weeks. But you can get a much better sense of what that actually means if you talk to people who are living in it.”
If you work in certain industries, it is common to get stock options (and if you don’t work in an industry known for stock options, consider it!). These can be incredibly profitable over time. You’re basically handed a handful of company stock—with rules on when you can access it and how long you have to work there to keep it—or given the chance to buy it for less than “market price.” Even though you’re at the mercy of how the market performs, these can end up being worth thousands of dollars.
In addition to more generous parental leave, one new family growth trend is offering a certain amount of fertility coverage for IVF or egg freezing costs. If this is high on your priority list, make sure to check InHerSight’s list of 48 companies that offer amazing fertility benefits.
With the drastic changes to in-person offices since 2020, support for working remotely is more frequently included in benefits packages now. The percentage of employers offering remote work was 30 percent pre-COVID-19 compared to 73 percent since the pandemic began. A lot of employers also offer a stipend for setting up your home office. This site tracks companies that have publicly shared their home office stipend amount—some as high as $1,000 one-time or annually.
For those who value time off, look for companies that offer a sabbatical, which is becoming more popular.
“A sabbatical benefit could offer someone the chance to take three months for travels, unique personal experiences or just the chance to reset after a big project, but offer the assurance that they can return to their jobs,” Murray says.
There’s also more volunteer time off, or VTO. “Time off for community service is a newer benefit that is sometimes separated from vacation,” Murray says. “I think as we see more community and social causes, employers may need to rethink granting time to employees for these endeavors.”
And a benefit especially appealing to new college graduates: student loan repayment help. Both Murray and Dixon have seen an uptick in employers offering financial help for student loan debt. This site lists 22 companies’ student loan repayment programs—some as generous as $500 a month.
Now that you have a starting point with the average benefit amounts, here are some companies that stand out for some of their generous employee benefit policies, so you know what’s possible to get for yourself.*
Something to remember with certain benefits—not everything can be changed for you, even if the company wants to give you what you want.
“One of the things about benefits is in many cases, they’re non-negotiable,” Dixon says. “They’re plans that are qualified so they have to offer the same thing to everyone. I think people think “health care is way more important to me, and I don’t really care about retirement, so I’m going to negotiate health care,” when the reality is that many or even most benefits are non-negotiable because they offer the same thing to every person that comes on board. There are some things that are tied to the level that you are coming into the organization with, so it’s challenging to get more stuff.”
When you can negotiate, you don’t want to try to get more of everything. Dixon says to focus on the top 3–5 things you want.
“I would discourage trying to negotiate more than five things just because there’s a real thing that’s negotiation fatigue,” Dixon says. “I’ve been on the other side of the table when a candidate has tried to negotiate every single thing in their package, and it really is very stressful. And it’s not necessary.”
Murray agrees to focus on the top three areas that matter to you when you’re job hunting, to make sure you get the benefits you want. She has a strategy for her clients to determine what matters most to them.
“In the current job market, everything is negotiable and candidates should approach job offers with their best interests in mind,” says Murray. “I advise any career clients I'm working with to approach job offers from a point of comparison. Establish a list or spreadsheet starting with your current or most recent employment,” Murray says. “Write down every element of your total compensation package. Total compensation goes beyond your base salary. This will include salary, bonuses, stock options, and commission payments, in addition to, all health care costs covered by the employer. Look at perks, such as work-from-home stipends or reimbursements that may be granted for internet, mobile phones or other work related expenses. Perhaps you have a car allowance or benefits related to travel. Factor in training or certification budgets or tuition reimbursement programs.”
“Once you've outlined all of your current benefits, take the offer you've received and add in the same information for this potential job. Where the new job has a benefit you don't receive from your current employer, make a note of that. Similarly, make sure to identify any benefits you will lose by moving to the new employer.”
And remember to always ask your potential new employer about the benefits so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.
“The number one most important thing is to read absolutely everything that you get from the company,” Dixon says. “Most companies when they send an offer letter will also send a benefits booklet, and just read everything and ask clarifying questions. Because sometimes what they’ll say is “we offer a great 401k and we match,” but they don’t say what the match is, so it’s okay to ask those questions and really understand your benefits package. It benefits the company that you know that going in as well as it benefits you. You don’t want any surprises when it comes to your benefits or your pay. You really want to understand exactly what it is you’re getting into.”
Kate Dixon is the principal and founder of Dixon Consulting, a leadership development and total rewards consultancy that specializes in services pricing coaching, salary negotiation coaching, compensation solutions, as well as workshops and team-building for organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Kate helps diverse leaders around the world become both more successful and more fulfilled through coaching, workshops, masterminds, and online courses where she teaches breakthrough strategies and techniques to accelerate leadership results. She provides strategic management consulting services to her corporate and non-profit clients. She’s a certified coach (Professional Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation, and Certified Professional Co-Active Coach from the Co-active Training Institute) and has been certified in compensation for over 20 years (Certified Compensation Professional from WorldAtWork).
Tiffani Murray is a HR transformation leader and career consultant. She is an experienced HR strategy/operations leader with 15 years of experience, with a specialization in HR systems/technology. She is a Director in the Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn and offers professional help for resume writing. Murray was selected by Workforce Management Magazine as one of their 15 inaugural "Game Changers" in HR under 40 for her work at Coca-Cola (read the recent follow-up here). She has been quoted on TheLadders, CareerBuilder, AOL, SHRM, MediaBistro, TheOfficeProfessional.com, Mint.com, NJ.com, ABCNews, Forbes, HowIGotMyJob and others on the topics of job search, recruitment, recruitment technology, HR systems, and talent management. She is also the author of Stuck on Stupid: A Guide for Today's Professional Stuck in a Rut.
