The United States law requires all employers to provide their employees with benefits alluded to their employment relationship. These benefits cater for an employee’s health and financial wellbeing while working for the employer. There exists two types of benefits; benefits required by law and benefits not required by law. Failure to provide the former may lead to criminal action taken against an employer. The benefits required by law are unemployment insurance, workers compensation, social security, family and medical leave, and health insurance (Lotich, 2015).
Unemployment insurance caters for employees who lose their jobs involuntarily for a fault that is not theirs. This benefit covers for the periods of unemployment arising due to this. Employees terminated for no just cause may benefit from this package for a brief period of time. An employer can minimize this cost by proper human resource planning since its dependent on previous experiences of the company firing employees.
Workers compensation is an insurance that caters for employees who become sick or injured while performing their contractual duties. Disability insurance is state-dependent. Employers can greatly minimize this cost by ensuring their workplaces are safe and hazard-free.
Social security taxes are contributed by both the employer and the employee. The law requires employers to withhold this tax at 6.2% of an employee’s total gross earnings (“What Basic Benefits Must a Company Provide Employees?” 2014). These taxes form part of an employee’s full retirement income. Since the percentage is set by law and shared between the employee and employer, the employer can’t do much to minimize it.
Family and medical leave is provided by law for every employee. The Act prescribes for 12 weeks of unpaid time off to every employee during a 12 month work period. This caters for qualifying medical, family, and exigency reasons. The law does not require the employer to pay anything for these leaves.
Health care benefits include health insurance that an employee gets from the employer for a period of up to 18 months. This benefit can be reduced by deducting a portion of it from the employee’s earnings.
Works Cited.
Lotich, P. (2015, November 06). 5 Employee Benefits Required by Law — The Thriving Small Business. The Thriving Small Business. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/employee-benefits/
What Basic Benefits Must a Company Provide Employees? (2014, August 26). Paychex. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://www.paychex.com/articles/employee-benefits/employee-benefits-a-company-must-provide