America’s 5 Most Sought-After Employee Benefits and Perks

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Benefits play a key role for potential employees considering whether to accept a new job, according to Glassdoor.

The jobs, recruiting and employer review website reports that nearly 3 in 5 people — 57 percent — say that benefits and perks are among their top considerations before accepting a job.

Around 80 percent also say they would prefer new perks over a pay raise.

Glassdoor has found that the most sought-after employee benefits are:

  1. Health care insurance: 40 percent
  2. Vacation/paid time off: 37 percent
  3. Performance bonus: 35 percent
  4. Paid sick days: 32 percent
  5. 401(k) plan, retirement plan and/or pension: 31 percent

Some companies go above and beyond the usual benefits, however.

Glassdoor has identified 20 employers that offer some of the most unusual benefits based on hundreds of thousands of benefits reviews that employees have shared on Glassdoor since August 2014, when Glassdoor introduced its Benefits Reviews feature.

Nine of those 20 employers also have an overall benefits rating of at least 4.5 out of five stars. Unusual benefits at these companies included:

Asana

  • Access to executive and life-coaching services outside of the company.

Facebook

  • $4,000 in “Baby Cash” for employees with a newborn.

Pinterest

  • Parental leave policy that includes three paid months off, one additional month of part-time hours and two counseling sessions to create a plan to re-enter the workplace.

Adobe

  • Entire company shuts down for one week in December and one week over the summer.

Airbnb

  • Annual stipend of $2,000 to travel and stay in any Airbnb listing worldwide.

Google

  • Surviving spouse or partner of a deceased employee receives 50 percent of the deceased employee’s salary for the next 10 years.

Salesforce

  • Six days of paid volunteer time off a year. Employees who use all six days also receive a $1,000 grant to donate to a charity of their choice.

World Wildlife Fund

  • Every other Friday off, known as “Panda Fridays.”

Zillow

  • Company pays for employees who are traveling to ship their breast milk.

What benefit or perk is most important to you? Let us know below or on Facebook.

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