Suppose there are two employees: Alice and Bob, who do the same job at the same factory. Alice has a 10 minute (20RT) commute, Bob commutes 35 minutes(70RT).

If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?

  • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    52
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Yeah why not. That shit is normal in my country. People get paid per kilometer or they get a transit pass. Of course the amount is capped and it’s a tax write off for the company anyway. Not sure why some of the comments here are against it. I guess they are all Americans

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Pretty normal here in the San Francisco / Silicon Valley area. Although it usually comes in the form of chartered busses, transit passes or free parking. And parking in San Francisco can be like $400 a month, so free parking is nice.

      The commute in this area averages 1-2 hours one way for many. So transportation perks are important to retaining high value employees.

      And because the commute sucks, remote / hybrid work options are also key for many gigs.

      • Pea666@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not the person you’re replying to but in the Netherlands it’s just a standard amount per KM from home to work with no compensation for travel time.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          It sounds like an incentive not to hire people who live too far away from the office to me.

          • Pea666@feddit.nl
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            It’s a small country so most commutes are relatively short anyway. On average, people live within 22km of their place of work.

            There’s also al lot of employers that offer other benefits or ways of compensating. Things like discounted or even free public transport, free parking, use of company cars, tax benefits when you purchase a bicycle etc.

          • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Why? It’s just a fraction of the salary anyway. Like most people only get €0.20 per km since that is what an employer can compensate tax free. With an average one way commute in my country of 20km that’s only €8 a day for a round trip so about €160 a month.

            Or a lot of people get a lease car from the company as a perk but then they don’t get compensated for their travel cost.

        • The amount is not exactly standard. There’s a maximum the employer is allowed to pay tax-free, but not every employer chooses to use that option. Some simply don’t, others stick with lower, preexisting tariffs.

          It’s absolutely ridiculous of course, giving someone the maximum amount of tax free compensation is just about the cheapest way to raise wages and keep employees happy. However, the rate is not mandatory (outside of some CAOs, perhaps) and there’s no legal right to claim compensation unless there’s a contract that says you get to.