In America, if you work hard enough, you can aspire to a gold-plated grille for your car or your teeth. You can sport hundred-dollar cuff links or arrive at work in a helicopter. This is the Land of Golden Opportunity, after all.
While on the job, slaving away for those cuff links, I’ve always wondered if the happiness factor at work correlates with our specific job specs or with the amount of appreciation we receive for fulfilling them. Employee benefits are just one of many elements that make workers feel happy to be part of the team, but with only a few months of maternity leave here, a meager travel stipend there, how are we hardworking Americans faring on a global scale in terms of job perks? I can’t help but wonder whether the grass is greener for worker bees abroad. Turns out, a few foreign lands provide benefits that the American Dream hasn’t even begun to dream of yet.
My Big Fat Greek Bonus
True, our Mediterranean friends are in the midst of a recession just like the rest of us are right now. But before the debt crisis, according to TheStar.com, Greek companies were rife with working pleasures:
Christmas Come Early. For the Greeks, Christmas bonuses come three times a year: half a month’s extra salary is paid to employees at Easter, then again during summer, and once again at Christmas. Even employees who aren’t strapped down to a nine-to-five job are entitled to a tip from Santa: as a “Christmas present,” taxis, restaurants, and hairdressers are legally allowed to charge extra during the holiday season.
A Raise, Per Favore? All Greek public- and private-sector workers get fourteen monthly salary payments annually, a structure aimed at keeping basic monthly salaries, and the pensions stemming from them, low. However, it’s also a system of bonuses that would make most American workers faint in their cubicles. For example, some civil servants are paid extra for using a computer; others, for simply arriving at work on time. Speaking a foreign language can also put extra money in an employee’s pocket, while many foresters get a bonus for working outdoors.
’Round-the-World Ticket for One, Please. For decades, labor unions squashed government attempts to sell the debt-ridden Olympic Airways. At the cost of millions for Greek taxpayers, employees of the airline enjoyed possibly the most generous benefit imaginable—their family members could fly around the world for free. But alas, even a free plane ride must come back down to Earth eventually: the EU took disciplinary measures against Athens for pouring state money into the loss-making airline, even after private local airlines began serving similar routes for less. Olympic was sold in 2008, but only after the state lavishly compensated or rehired about 4,600 employees.
Norway and Germany: The Benefits of Baby Making
Norwegian Daddy Quota. In Norway, generous employee benefits have actually done wonders for the birth rate, according to BBC News. One parent is entitled to twelve months off work with 80 percent pay, or ten months off with full pay. Husbands are also encouraged to take off as much time as possible and must, at the very least, take four weeks off after the baby is born (or else those weeks will be lost for both parents). This is known as the “daddy quota”; the government has even proposed to expand it by one more week.
This paid leave is guaranteed by Norway’s National Insurance Act, which began back in 1956. Because the leave is financed through taxes, employers don’t lose out financially when people take their parental leave. The present system of ten or twelve months’ leave with 80 to 100 percent pay has been in effect since 1993. Since then, according to the BBC’s research, the Norwegians’ birth rate has been a steady 1.8 percent higher than in most European countries—and who can blame them? Of course, the government doesn’t propose these benefits to bolster the birth rate, but it does believe in securing greater gender equality and increasing workers’ rights.
