Suppose there are two employees: Alice and Bob, who do the same job at the same factory. Alice has a 10 minute (20RT) commute, Bob commutes 35 minutes(70RT).
If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?
Employees living far away is not something I would want to incentivize for so many reasons.
But that’s not what compensation for the commute would incentivize. I don’t understand why people think getting paid to drive to work would mean employees would spend most of the week driving. It would mean employers would only hire employees who live upstairs.
Paying money for a behavior is an incentive for that behavior.
Does that mean every employee would choose to live far away to maximize their commuter mileage benefit? No.
Does that mean some barriers to living far away would be reduced, thus increasing odds that some employees would live further away, or that some prospective employees that live at distance would consider applying to this company over a company that doesn’t offer a commuter mileage benefit? Yes.
Companies also aren’t worried employees “would spend most of their weeks driving”. Most companies don’t include drive time as hours worked.
I would think free time is still more valuable in most cases.
Never had an employer that cares about what I do with my free time nor how optimized it is.
The question is what a person might offer as an employer, not what benefit a person might like to have as an employee.
Yeah why not. That shit is normal in my country. People get paid per kilometer or they get a transit pass. Of course the amount is capped and it’s a tax write off for the company anyway. Not sure why some of the comments here are against it. I guess they are all Americans
of course the Americans are against it
“BuT WHY IS SHE GEAtatING PaId MORE”
Is this their time as well, or just travel costs?
Not the person you’re replying to but in the Netherlands it’s just a standard amount per KM from home to work with no compensation for travel time.
It sounds like an incentive not to hire people who live too far away from the office to me.
Why? It’s just a fraction of the salary anyway. Like most people only get €0.20 per km since that is what an employer can compensate tax free. With an average one way commute in my country of 20km that’s only €8 a day for a round trip so about €160 a month.
Or a lot of people get a lease car from the company as a perk but then they don’t get compensated for their travel cost.
Why? It’s no skin off anyone’s back.
It’s a small country so most commutes are relatively short anyway. On average, people live within 22km of their place of work.
There’s also al lot of employers that offer other benefits or ways of compensating. Things like discounted or even free public transport, free parking, use of company cars, tax benefits when you purchase a bicycle etc.
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Just the travel cost. Not their time.
I would make sure they are both payed well enough that they can afford to live close to the factory. If they chose to live far away anyway, that is not my problem.
I would put then on the same shift so they eat lunch together. Soon they will fall in love, get married and move in together. Problem solved.
What do you mean compensate employees for their commutes? If I were a self-respecting factory owner, I would figure out how to get the municipality to scale back any public transit options so I could lease vehicles to my employees. They should be paying me to get to work, ha!
Spoken like a true businesstorian.
like a subscription!! yes!!!
they would pay you everyday to get to and from work. would it be a flat rate or by the length of commute? length in minutes? miles?
They’d just be typical leases at competitive rates, but with expensive penalties for going over milage limits (those limits being the yearly necessary travel distance to and from work for each employee). The cars will be underpowered, “environmentally friendly” electric vehicles.
Blowjobs
If we have to be hypothetical, let’s go wildYou’ve got union rep written all over your post.
I’m gonna be all over the union rep
No. I don’t know or care where they live. I will provide parking.
The government will get upset with you if you don’t have your employees’ addresses. You need that for tax purposes.
you mean, you’ll give them a discount on parking? ;)
I hope you’re not my boss. If you are. Go fuck yourself buddy.
Od rather pay you more and then pay your peers equally than pay everyone differently based on how long of a drive they have. It’s an odd subsidy that likely has unintended consequences.
Why would an employer care how far away their employees live, or compensate them for their travel?
Unless the employer also gets to decide where they can and can’t live, why should they compensate them?
Why would an employer care how far away their employees live
Commute obviously has an impact on overall satisfaction. In roles that can be done remote or in person you can effectively trade commute time for pay.
This logic can be extended to employees working in person with contrasting commute times. Thus op’s question
Anything short of my commuting time being considered part of my working hours is a non-starter for me. I value the time I gain by not commuting a lot more than most employers do. If my day starts the moment I close my front door, then we can start talking about additional concessions.
A high static number, like $100/week. The people who live closer will get a little extra and that’s fine (a mild incentive)
This is how a lot of companies in my area do it. They might offer either a transit card, a parking pass, or a small extra cash bonus each month. Generally the transit card and parking passes are more valuable than the cash.
I commute an hour, but I only do so because it’s cheaper to live where I do instead of in the city I work in. I’m already compensated.
If I wanted a short commute I would be paying for it.
No because that opens the door for more complicated situations. Alice is late one day due to traffic or a road closure, does she get more compensation? What if Bob can’t drive so his commute takes longer? What if he can drive, but chooses not to?
My employer gives us a commuting payment based on the distance from home to work (paid per km) on days we go to the office. We get an additional €60 a month to cover our working from home costs.
Some countries actually pay your commute fees or part of them. In Argentina it’s called viático. It can be advertised as part of the job payment or discussed upon closing the agreement, regardless of whether the job is legal (by the books, officially taxable) or otherwise.
I think it’s pretty standard in the EU.
I had no idea! Cool
lol Argentina is a strange place to use as an example. I see what you mean though
I know… lol I’m not trying to say it’s any better. Wealthier countries don’t see the point in compensating this way, because the expense in the grand scheme of things is just petty change for the workers.
But if it was necessary, then it’s not too bad a system, which is what OP was after.
It’s dependent on how competitive the job market is. You either pay the person more to get them to do it or you don’t. You set a value on their relative skills. Everything else comes out in the wash.
