EMPLOYMENT
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Compensation is payment of employees for their work. It is a combination of payments, benefits and employer services. Many workers receive compensation in the form of wages, which are based on the number of hours the employee has worked or the number of units he or she has produced. Wages provide a direct incentive to a worker: the more hours worked or the more pieces completed, the higher the worker's pay. Workers whose output is not always directly related to the number of hours they put in or a number of pieces produced are paid salaries. They base compensation on time, but the unit of time is a week, two weeks, a month, or a year. Salaried workers, such as managers and professional normally receive no pay for the extra hours they are sometimes asked to put in; overtime is simply part of their obligation.
Some benefits are required by law: unemployment compensation, government pensions, and worker's compensation. In addition, most employers offer additional benefits, such as compensation for time off (holidays, vacations), employer-purchased insurance (health, life, and disability), private pensions and other services such as prepaid legal services, health club memberships, or child care centers. Benefits account for over one third of payroll costs. Not only are benefits expensive, but they aren't always the benefits that employees want. Satisfaction with benefits has slipped dramatically in the last 10 years. Benefits have not kept step with changes in the demographics of the workplace.
EXERCISE 1. TYPES OF BENEFITS
Match the below benefits 1 - 9 with their definitions (a) - (i) and find Polish equivalents of the terms below:
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USEFUL VOCABULARY:
a refund - money repaid
assets - entries on a balance sheet showing all properties, tangible and intangible, and claims against others that may be applied, directly or indirectly, to cover the liabilities of a person or business, such as cash, stock, and goodwill
deceased - dead
equity - the residual value of a business or property beyond any mortgage thereon and liability therein; the market value of securities less any debt incurred; common stock and preferred stock; funds provided to a business by the sale of stock
scholarship - grant of financial aid awarded to a student, as for the purpose of attending a college
subsistence - means of supporting life
to be eligible - to qualify to meet the requirements
to defer - to postpone, delay
to grant - to consent to the fulfillment of: grant a request; to accord as a favor, prerogative, or privilege: granted the franchise to all citizens; to bestow; confer: grant aid; to transfer (property) by a deed
to sustain - to experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury
tuition - the fee for instruction taken by a school
Off-time for which an employee receives pay
An approach to asset accumulation - under this plan, employers make payments to a trust, which purchases the employer's stock for the benefit of employees. Employees get a tax deduction for the contribution, and employees accumulate equity in the organization
Time away from regular work used for recreation
This kind of support may vary from basic reading skills programs for illiterate workers, to tuition-refund program for managers, to scholarship and loan plans for employees' children. Companies often use such plans as a part of their employee-development programs.
Leave from work granted because of illness
A system designed to provide a subsistence payment for employees between jobs. The employer pays into an appropriate fund at a rate based on the average number of former employees who have drawn benefits from the fund. To be eligible, the employee must have worked a minimum number of weeks, be without a job, and be willing to accept a suitable position offered through the State Unemployment Compensation Commission
It is an employer-paid insurance program designed to compensate an employee for the expenses sustained from a work-related injury. An injury is compensable is it is the result of an accident that occurred in the course of employment, Diseases that result from occupations (e.g. black lung disease in miners) are also compensable
They are based on a strategy to shift income to post-retirement years. Employers capitalize on lower income taxes.
A system providing some income protection to employees who have retired or are disabled, as well as the survivors of deceased workers. Both employees and employers must pay related premiums
FRINGE BENEFITS AND PERKS
While companies regularly provide their employees with fringe benefits, which are financial benefits other than wages, salaries and incentives, executives often receive a special set of additional fringe benefits referred to as perks (perquisites). These include such niceties as company cars and club membership.
FLEXI-BENEFITS
One innovative approach to tuning benefits into individual preferences, as well as control costs, is flexible benefits. Under these plans, employees are given a core group of benefits plus credits for additional benefit coverage, that they may allocate in any way they choose.
Although there are various benefits programs, the core cafeteria plan is the most common. Under its provisions, employees have identical minimum level of benefits for health and life insurance and pensions. They may then choose whichever benefits they prefer: additional life insurance, more vacation time, better health insurance coverage, dependent health insurances, long-term disability, dental coverage, or child care services. Employee purchase these choices by using benefit credits designed into the plan. Different options require different levels of credits. Employees periodically recertify to revise their choices. In this way changes in employees; needs are recognized.
The effect of benefits on employees' behaviors and on equity are not well documented. Benefits may even be dysfunctional, since few of them are tied to performance. Rather, they are entitlements - given to employees as part of the conditions of employment.
EXERCISE 2. VOCABULARY ROUND-UP AND REVISION
Applying the vocabulary from the chapter complete the below text. Here are some of the terms applicable: performance, employee stock ownership plans, remuneration, to curb absenteeism, overtime, commission, unemployment benefits, bonus.
Wages (for hourly workers) and [pensje miesięczne] ............................. (for non-hourly workers) are the most typical components of [wynagrodzenie pracowników] ................................. Some employees also receive incentive payments [premie, prowizje] ................................., ................................., profit sharing, and production sharing, which are cash payments tied to their [wyniki pracy] ................................. or that of the company in order to encourage productivity and accountability; some workers, such as some sales representatives, receive incentive pay only.
Insurance plans, including [zasiÅ‚ki dla bezrobotnych] ................................. , are the most popular type of benefit; they help protect workers against the risk of losing their income through illness, death or changing economic conditions. [Åšwiadczenia emerytalne] ................................., including [ubezpieczenia spoÅ‚eczne] ................................ , are also popular as means of guaranteeing working people a comfortable old age. [UdziaÅ‚y pracownicze] ................................. , in which employees receive shares of the company's stock, give workers a say in its management. “Cafeteria” benefits are flexible plans providing employees the unique combination of benefits that suit their needs.
Paid holidays, sick pay, premium pay for [nadgodziny] ................................. and [urlop płatny] ................................. are important [przywileje] ................................. . In 1985 employers provided an average of 8.6 of paid vacation per year after one year of service, 15.9 days after 10 years and 15.9 days of sick leave per employee. Companies have various policies as to how many days they consider holidays. Sick-day allowances also vary from company to company, although sick days are usually limited [aby ograniczyć nadmierne opuszczanie pracy] ..................................
EXERCISE 3. TRANSLATION
We wczorajszym numerze widziałam ogłoszenie o wolnym stanowisku głównego księgowego.
Wszyscy ubiegajÄ…cy siÄ™ zostanÄ… pisemnie zawiadomieni o wyniku rozmowy kwalifikacyjnej.
Prosimy załączyć życiorys, list motywacyjny i opinię poprzednich przełożonych.
Wszyscy kandydaci podlegajÄ… takiej samej procedurze kwalifikacyjnej.
Oferujemy wynagrodzenie uzależnione od osiąganych wyników i atrakcyjny pakiet świadczeń dodatkowych.
Po pewnym okresie zatrudnienia pracownicy mogą liczyć na zwrot kosztów kształcenia oraz czesnego.
Członkom załogi oferujemy udziały w akcjach przedsiębiorstwa.
Rodziny zmarłych pracowników otrzymują świadczenia socjalne.
Świadczenia oferowane przez przedsiębiorstwo przekraczają 30% kosztów wynagrodzeń pracowniczych.
Zadowolenie pracowników z otrzymywanych wynagrodzeń znacznie obniżyło się w ciągu ostatniej dekady.
Samuel B. Linde College of Modern Languages
Translation School 2010/11 Business: Employment