Discretionary and Legally Required Benefits – Discussion
“Discretionary and Legally Required Benefits” Please respond to the following:
Discuss whether or not you believe that discretionary employee benefits should be an entitlement or earned based on performance. Justify your response.
Select two (2) legally required benefits and explain why it is necessary for the law to require these benefits for employees. Next, debate whether or not you believe these laws are fair for both employers and employees. Provide support for your response.
Legally Required Benefits
Social Security and Medicare
Social Security established a system to provide old-age, survivor’s, disability, and retirement benefits. Medicare was implemented to provide medical care for people over the age of 65.
Social Security is paid for by employees and employers through a tax on employees’ wages or salaries. Retirement age has increased __________________
Medicare is a government-operated health insurance program for Americans age 65 and above. It is funded by a tax on employers and employees.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation is security benefits provided to workers who are injured on the job.
Employers are required to provide cash benefits, medical care, and rehabilitation to employees injured on the job.
No-fault insurance means that an injured worker receives benefits even if the accident was the employee’s fault.
Exclusive remedy means that workers’ compensation benefits are the only benefits injured workers may receive from the employer to compensate for work-related injuries.
Unemployment Compensation
Unemployment compensation provides a minimum level of benefits for workers who are out of work.
Additional Legally Required Benefits
Additional required benefits include COBRA, health care portability, and medical information privacy under HIPAA.
Solution Preview
Discretionary employee benefits should never be regarded as an entitlement but should lean more on job performance. There are two perspectives which should be used to determine why the benefits need to be earned based on the employee performance. The first factor will be the level of performance while the second element will focus on the time which has been served by the employee with the company. When considering the level of performance, job performance should be used to determine whether the employee is entitled to the benefits or not.
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