Dear Evil HR Lady,
I have two exempt employees, who currently have the same benefits (vacation pay, sick pay, retirement). One employee is requesting the ability to buy an additional week of vacation.
I’m happy to allow her to do this, but this then brought up a question for me if it wouldn’t simply make more sense moving forward to offer her an additional week of vacation and reduce her salary in general to offset that cost. This would then make the benefits no longer equal (note: Both employees became full time and eligible for vacation at the same time).
So the question is: Do I need to offer the exact same benefits to all salaried employees that are at the same level in company hierarchy?
To read the answer, click here: Do you have to offer everyone identical benefits?
You should maybe clarify on the article, though, that this does not apply to certain benefits (health insurance, 401k match, etc.).
Can you think of a reason it is better to have $1,000 worth of paid vacation in lieu of one week LWOP and $1,000 of salary for other weeks that offsets the LWOP? I am not smart enough to come up with the benefit to the employee who is requesting the adjustment.