- Your basic compensation is your ’salary’ (white-collar staff) or ’wage’ (blue-collar staff, and used for payment on an hourly or piecework basis). Additional financial incentives include:
- Performance-related bonuses.
- Commission (for staff in the sales area).
- Profit sharing
- Stock options (= the chance to buy company shares in the future at a fixed price).
- Pay rises for additional skills and qualifications.
Employees can also receive a whole range of other benefits (= fringe benefits / perks) such as sick-leave and holiday pay, retirement (= pension) plans, health insurance, child care and elder care, training, company car, laptop, mobile device, subsidized canteen, the chance to travel, etc.
INCOME
- salary = is nomeny that is usually paid to an employee monthly on a regular basis
- wages ( is money that is normally paid to an employee on a weekly basis
- remuneration = the formal word for money that an employee receives for doing his / her job
- gross salary = net salary – deduction
- hourly / weekly rate = the amount of money an employee receives each hour / week
- payslip = shows an employee how much pay he / she has received and how much has been removed for tax, insurance, etc.
- payroll = is the list a company keeps that shows all the people employed and paid by that company
- minimum wage = is the lowest hourly wage which an employer can legally pay to its employees
- payrise = when you want more money for the work you do, you might ask for it
- advance /sub/ = if an employee needs some of his / her wages paid before the usually pay day, she might ask for it
- overtime
- double time = time for which work is paid at twice the normal rate (e.g. on national holidays)
- rewards package = the money and other benefits offered with the job
- commensurate = when the money that an employee earns is based on age, experience, qualifications, position in the company
- commission = a sales person usually earns a percentage of the sales value of the product or service he / she sells
- royalty
- incentive
- a bonus = an extra payment in addition to normal payment (e.g. for sales people for selling more than their quota)
- weigthing = is the additional amount of money paid to an employee to compensate him / her for living in an expensive area
- relocation allowance = i fan employee takes a job in another town or city which is a long way from his / her original home and place of work
- increment = an automatic and regular increase in pay
- leave entitlement = companies have to give their employees the right to take paid holidays and other time off work
- discount = some companies offer their employees it ont he products and services they sell
- redundance pain = if an employee loses his / her job beacuse the company doesn’t need or can’t afford to keep him / her
- unemployment benefit = people who do not have a job may be entitled to it on certain conditions
- maternity / paternity leave = women who are expecting a baby are entitled to it
- a pension
EXPENDITURE
- living expenses
- bills
- rent
- a mortgage
- health insurance
- tax = is automatically removed from the money you receive and paid directly to the government department responsible for collecting it
- tax return = the government department may sometimes ask you to fill it in which gives details of your financial situation
REMUNERATION PACKAGES
1 performance-related pay
2 sports club membership
3 employee assistance programme
4 flexible working hours
5 relocation expenses
6 pension scheme
7 profit-sharing bonus scheme
8 life insurance
9 cafeteria
10 creche / childcare facilities
11 shares in success
12 salaries
Exercise 1: Look at the list of pints that should be mentioned in a contract of employment in the UK. Match them to the extracts from some model contracts:
Video 1: Up in the Air
- “Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... Your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. Your husband, your wife, your home. We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. Make no mistake, moving is living.”
- “We are not swans, we are sharks.”
- Natalie to Ryan: “You life is a cocoon of self-banishment. You have set up a way of life that basically makes it impossible for you to have any kind of human connection.”
- How do you respond to this philosophy?
- What are the benefits of an empty backpack life?
- What are the drawbacks?
- Why is moving so important to Ryan?
- How did Natalie inspire Ryan to change?