When Less is Really More - $$

We recently administered an employee survey for our department. One of the areas to focus on had to do with pay. A group (albeit a relatively small group compared to the whole department) indicated that they were not paid enough for their role. While I know that our compensation is competitive for the role our staff performs, I wondered how we could explain this.One of the areas I wanted to address was the fact that compensation is not just about pay. Although most of us understand this, I am not sure most of us really understand what this means.I decided to try and explain this through a pie chart. I took all of the areas of compensation that our group has available to them and was surprised at how much there really is. Here are some examples:

• Payrate (this is obvious, and can be hourly or salary)
• Benefits (this can be up to 30% over and above the payrate which may surprise most)
• Paid sick days
• Paid vacation beyond the two week minimum
• Your own company discounts on products or services
• Discounts arranged by the company such as deals on products and services from other companies, e.g., Wonderland and other event ticket discounts, a gym membership, discounts on travel, car rentals etc.
• Bonuses
• Incentives (no matter how big or small) and rewards
• Department lunches or dinners (holiday season is big for these)

You get the idea. The list may be longer or shorter depending on the Company you work for. When I added all of these together, I realized that payrate was less than 75% of the actual compensation a person receives. Those little "extras" added up to almost $10k per year in added compensation for each person!

When it comes to benefits, I explained that the next time you visit the dentist (for example) take a look at the cost. Whatever amount your benefits covered is money that did not leave your bank account. Therefore you earned that money (to spend elsewhere). I noticed this approach helped people realize how benefits are a major part of compensation and very often the one thing we take for granted when we have them.

Every little bit counts toward your total compensation.

Someone making $15 per hour or approximately $30k per year may actually make less at a new job paying $17 per hour or $34k. Those extras can really add up when you take the time to look at them closely.

I visited the dentist last week. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I didn't have to pay out of my own pocket.