Careers With Benefits

When you are considering a new career or job offer, it's easy to get caught up in the salary, and to some extent the type of work. However, a lot of job seekers overlook the benefits package or lack of one, and that can be a mistake. It's particularly easy to ignore the lack of a benefit package if the job pays well, or more than similar jobs in the same industry. It's also something that doesn't necessarily mean much if you intend to stay in a job for a short time.

When I refer to benefits I am talking about the extras, anything but the salary and bonuses. Benefits mean things like health and dental insurance, vacation time, hours of work, retirement or savings plans, stock sharing, company cars, paid vacations, travel allowances etc.

Depending on the job and the offer, you need to take these things into consideration.One of the best ways to do that is to translate it into dollars, figure out what it would cost you without the benefit. Health plans for example, sure you are healthy right now, but what if you get sick sometime later in life. A health plan can mean the difference between surviving when you are unable to work, and being on social assistance. For example, one of my daughters and I both have a medical condition that requires two kinds of daily medicine. The medicine costs about $60 a month for each one. That means that if I didn't have a plan, I would be out about $240 a month, with it, I am in about $220 a month. (I have to pay a small percentage of each prescription.)

It's the same with pension plans etc, if your employer is making contributions to a pension plan on your behalf, it may not seem like much when you are 23 years old, but when you are 53 years old and you realize you can retire and live quite well on your pension, well...that means a lot, trust me. I'm close to that age now and if I didn't have the penison plan I have, I would be working well beyond age 53.

Depending on the job, a car or car allowance can mean a lot. If you have to use your car for business, you either need to be making a hell of a lot of money, or you need a company car, otherwise, it's like losing a big percentage of your salary to repairs, fuel, tires, insurance, and today with the price of gasoline...well....it's worth a small fortune.

Of course, if you are a student, or working in a job with a set ending in sight, you may not be too worried about benefits, especially if you are young, and know you will not be staying in that line of work, maybe you can negotiate for a bigger salary and no benefits, but be careful of that. Sometimes short term jobs become long term careers and you don't want to end up closing in on retirement age without a pension plan and a health plan for you and your family.

If you do take a job without benefits there are a couple of things you need to do. One is talk to an investment counsellor and get yourself a private pension/savings plan that you pay into each month as soon as you start working. In fact, I recommend you do that even if your job does have a pension plan. The other thing you need to do is sign up for a private health and drug plan. Hospitals and medicines are very expensive, and if you come down with something serious, and I hope you don't, you will be glad to have a health plan. Imagine my bank account if I had to pay the $240 a month for my prescriptions and my daughter's....

As far as vacations and time off is concerned, you want paid sick leave and decent vacation time. You work hard for your money and a vacation every year is important. I don't know how people do it that end up in jobs that either don't offer vacation, or only give their employees two weeks off a year. That's better than nothing, but these days, I suggest you don't settle for anything less than three weeks paid vacation a year to start, increasing after a set number of years etc.

Careers with benefits....something to consider.....