Employers give “points” to employees based on years of service, merit, or some such employment related condition (similar to how many employees accumulate more vacation/sick/personal time off as years of service increase).
Then the employer assigns a certain number of points to a smorgasbord of benefits, from which each employee can choose.
For example:
A new employee at Vandalay Industries is awarded 10 points upon being hired. After one year of service, his/her point allocation is increased to 12 points. After three years of service, his/her point allocation is increased to 15 points. Additionally, points could be awarded as bonuses or alternate compensation for overtime. And, importantly, points can be carried over from year to year.
Vandalay Industries then provides the employees with a menu of benefits to choose from and the point value of each benefit, such as:
Health isurance for employee – 2 points (2.5 points if you want vision and dental coverage added)
Health insurance for employee’s spouse or domestic partner – 2 points (2.5 points if you want vision and dental)
Health insurance for employee’s children – 2 points (2.5 points if you want vision and dental)
One week of vacation, personal, or sick leave – 1 point
Tuition reimbursement for one college course – 1 point
Bus pass – .5 point
Parking space – 1.5 points
Life insurance – 1 point
Disability insurance – 1.5 points
Each company is free to designate the number of points it gives its employees and the point value of each benefit, depending upon the cost of the benefit to the company. Obviously, the companies that give the most points and have the lost point value assigned to each benefit are going to be the most desirable companies.
So let’s take me…
I would choose the best health insurance coverage, costing 2.5 point. I would also choose the life and disability insurance, which would cost me another 2.5 points. That leaves me with 5 points left. Depending upon the city, I would opt for either the bus pass or the parking space, take a college course, and take the rest as vacation/sick/personal time. I could rollover my points to the next year if I didn’t use all the vacation/sick/personal time I chose, or if I ended up not taking a college course.
Parents would probably choose differently…opting to spend more points for family health insurance and vacation time. Keep in mind, however, that only one of the spouses would have to “buy” the family insurance. The other spouse could bank points with his/her company in anticipation of having children. Just as a single person or childfree individual would be able to anticipate taking a two or three month trip around the world by banking enough points.
Make sense? Is anyone slighted in this scenario?
