ROFL, wow, talk about cherry-picking to make a case...
The fact is the US offers the least PTO of any developed nation. Same goes with sick leave and mat/pat leave.
And free lunch? Free bus passes? Stock and option plans, profit sharing, educiation/tuition, retirement, gym memberships... HA!
I know this is shocking, but: most of the world isn't SV. Those benefits are fantasies for the vast majority of American salaried employees.
Many people I know live with 2 weeks of combined PTO, 3 months of maternity leave (mandated by law... ish... there's a bunch of exclusions) and no paternity leave whatsoever, basic health care, and a 401k match if they're lucky.
Now, I'm not claiming that a salaried employee isn't more expensive than a contract employee. That's objectively true. And in a very real sense, the entire point and why this trend is alarming: the more people pushed to underemployement (part-time or contract work), the more people who don't realize those additional benefits, thus contributing to the ongoing demolition of the middle class.
But the US workplace is hideously behind the rest of the western world, and is still managing to lead the way in underemployment as well. After a while you really gotta wonder why that is...
> which is that the cost of those benefits should be added in when comparing salaries.
If any of my past companies are any indication (outside of La La Land California), most of the additional "benefits" are wiped out by my monthly premium for my health insurance "benefit."
6-15 are not only not mandatory, they are purposely offered by some employers to attract and incentivize employees. Thus, to compare them to government required benefits (1-5) makes no sense. The the high cost of employees is more attributable to the competition for employees by employers, not government required benefits.
Hang on, 6-15 are not only not legally mandated, but also very rare, right? And my understanding is that 2-4 are smaller in the US than other first-world countries.
So we're left with FICA and healthcare. Healthcare being bizarrely expensive.
