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David Downing wrote:
> I confess I'm not even sure what they mean by "total
> compensation." Are they talking about things like travel expenses?
> Benefits? It sounds like they're using it to mean whatever they want it
> to mean to justify what they offered you.
I think perhaps you haven't been in the job market for a while. Every
employer I've worked for or applied to over the last 15 or so years has
used some minor variation on the term "total compensation". This phrase
is a widely used term that can encompass a lot of different ingredients
that different companies offer, including (but not limited to):
-salary
-bonus and/or profit-sharing
-stock options
-paid holidays
-personal holidays
-vacation (particularly if it can be carried over and paid out in cash if
not used in a given year)
-achievement bonus (e.g. patent bonus for engineers)
-pension plan and/or matching contribution to 401k plan
-employee stock purchase plan
-medical insurance (and if dependents are covered)
-dental insurance
-prescription drug insurance
-flexible spending account (for medical or dependent care expenses)
-counseling services (e.g. family crises, substance abuse)
-life insurance
-travel insurance
-matching contributions to charity or education
-reimbursement for employee's education (advanced degree work,
continuing education)
-company-provided education/training opportunities
-professional development budget (seminars, conferences)
-personal computer hardware purchase allowance
-internet access and/or cell phone allowance
-negotiated discounts with major vendors and service
providers (e.g. Dell, Apple, Microsoft, Verizon)
Not every company will provide all of these employee benefits
(although both of my last two employers have come within 2 or
3 items of the full list, which is why both were on the Fortune
magazine "100 Best Companies to Work For" list), and not all
employees will be able to take advantage of every benefit, but
the company is prepared to pay for them for for everybody
who does use them. Beyond the "cash" items that are specific
to each employee and their annual performace (salary, bonus,
stock options), insurance is easily another $10k-20k per year,
and the miscellaneous items can be another $5k-15k on top of
that. Some companies with really generous benefits packages
do expect employees to reduce their base salary requirements
by a few percentage points to compensate for how much value
is provided elsewhere in the total package. But it's always up
to the employee to decide how much *real* value the benefits
have to them compared to the equivalent cost of the benefits.
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