Incentive takes hold in the United States, while still rare in Italy. Quacquarelli (Bicocca): “Certain topics remain taboo here”
MILAN – Employment is growing, unemployment benefit claimants are falling, and wages are above inflation. The US employment market is experiencing a golden age and this pushes companies to look for new ways to recruit staff. After the pandemic, which prompted many people to seek a greater balance between personal and work life, the salary component is only one of the levers available.
Emerging trends in corporate welfare
An analysis carried out by the Wall Street Journal reports that among the new trends is to offer to cover the cost of fertility-related treatments. This is a commitment that also has a “systemic” value, considering that in the States, as in the rest of the West, the progressive aging of the population puts the stability of public finances at risk, as it involves greater expenditure on pensions against a lower proportion of people of working age.
The benefits are not an absolute novelty, but if in the past they were mainly offered to management level. Today they are also often offered to with lower-paid employees such as cashiers, warehouse workers and bartenders, as well as part-time employees.
Finding the balance between costs and returns
For several years now, Apple and Facebook have covered employees’ costs for egg freezing. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 25% of employers in the US currently offer IVF coverage compared to 20% in 2019, before the pandemic. These include well-known companies such as Amazon, Target and Starbucks.
However, some companies are beginning to question the wisdom of this strategy, considering that it involves outlays that are anything but negligible. Thus, for example, Tractor Supply (an American retail chain that sells products for the home, agriculture and lawn and garden maintenance) has decided to grant the benefit to those who have been with the company for at least one year.
Italian experiences and the taboo
“From a tax and social security contributions point of view, health care contributions paid by the employer do not constitute, within certain thresholds, income from employment with consequent economic benefit for both the employer and the worker,” explains Vittorio De Luca, managing partner of the law firm De Luca & Partners .
Continue reading the full version published in La Repubblica.
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