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Repeat After Me: A "Perk" is not a "Benefit"
Silicon Valley is humming again and starry-eyed entrepreneurs pre-occupied with finding a Homecoming date during the last dot-com boom are fielding multi-million dollar offers for their Widget 2.0. To those younger workers waxing nostalgic for 1999, hoping to eschew suits for sneakers by finding a job at the next MySpace or YouTube (and there are MANY to choose from), remember this: a perk is not a benefit.
Hip Internet companies of all sizes are known for perks like foosball conference tables, nap rooms and even on-site wet bars, but all the perks in the world won't help you pay for health insurance or build a retirement savings.
While more small businesses are offering some kind of healthcare plan to employees (71% up from 54% last year according to a recent American Express survey), a 2005 Union Bank of California study found that 75% of small businesses offered no retirement benefits at all, because they tend to be rather costly.
Perks are great, there's no doubt about it , but having worked for a company that had a vintage Pac-Man machine in the "brainstorm nook" won't be quite as cool when you're 70. So go for the fun companies, just make sure you're being taken care of in ways that matter in the long-term.
Posted by on November 8, 2006 at 9:37 AM
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Comments
This is a really important point. And the problem is so much more widespread than the hipster startups in Silicon Valley. When my husband was interviewing at non-profits that specifically addressed social services, they were not offering affordable health care benefits to their own employees. Interestingly, in that case, the perk was not a foosball table but the ability to get paid to help other people.
Posted by Penelope Trunk on November 11, 2006 9:16 PM
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I'm new! Love the site, thanks!
Posted by TexagnosticZ1 on November 27, 2006 7:50 PM