Czech Companies Offer Unusual Job Benefits but the Meal Vouchers Beat Them All
What benefits are required by law? And what’s just good policy? This article will help you figure it out.
Employee benefits are nothing new, but the companies have bee giving them a fresh touch in the recent years. Critics argue that it is mainly to gain more publicity while some experts explain that the job benefits should bring long-term economic advantages to the businesses.
The Most Popular Job Benefits among Employees
In survey conducted by HAYS in 2016 in the Czech Republic, 1500 employees where asked what job benefits they would appreciate most. Heading the list of must-have job benefits is extra days of vacation, but many job applicants also demand home office, or a company car. Idnes.cz survey adds meal vouchers, sport activities, or 13th wage to the list.
Meal vouchers keep their place as a one of the most popular benefits among the employees in the Czech Republic. More than 1.3 million employees use them daily and they eat meals for approximately 15 billion CZK every year. Currently, there are about 60,000 employers providing meal vouchers to their employees.
People named among the most sought-after job benefits flexible working hours, mobile phone, further education, or professional courses, and sick days; while benefits like company events, or pet-friendly office scored the lowest percentages in the HAYS survey.
Employers Offer Money for Your Wedding or Extra Days Off to Train Your Pet
There no single company that does not provide any benefit to its employees. The Czech companies usually offer meal vouchers, extra leave, mobile phones, flexible working hours, and home. A recently popular job benefit here have been a pet-friendly office, weekends in spa, or language courses.
Some employers chose to offer far less common job benefits to their staff. American Netflix supports their employees – parents – with a fully paid, year-long paternity leave. A New York online shop “Boxed” offered to their female employee money for organizing her dream wedding day while a Scottish brewery “Brewdog” gives their employees a week off for training their puppies.
Mandatory Job Benefits for the Czech Employees
Let’s take a look at the mandatory employee benefits in the Czech Republic. You are entitled to these by the Czech law.
- Vacation Days: Full time employees are entitled to 25 days per calendar year of paid vacation days.
- Sick Days: Every employee is entitled to 14 days to sick pay leave and the salary during that period is 60% of the average salary (excluding the first 3 days).
- Healthcare: Public health insurance is obligatory and the insured employees have to participate 4,5% of the gross income.
- Social Security.
- Severance Pay: Every employee has the right to severance pay according to the length of employment.
- Termination Notice: The statutory minimum notice period is 2 months for both employees and employers.
Cafeteria and Bonus Sacrifice
The most modern and flexible system of the job benefits is an online portal called Cafeteria. The portal is tailored for each company; the employees log in system using their user name and password. They can use a benefit card that looks and works just like a credit card with a unique number and PIN to pay in stores and for online shopping.
Many employers use a new system called Bonus Sacrifice. This system is very flexible – the employees can decide whether the attributed “benefit points” will be used withing the cafeteria system or they will have them transferred to their account with their salary.
