How much is benefits worth?

[ShaneNg]

Hi all,

There are lots of contract work in the current job market. companies are paying a lot more for contract work compare to a full time position because they don't have to deal with benefits, and other costs associated with having someone on the payroll.

Since the only real difference between contract work and a full time position is the benefits, what is the benefits worth? Assume for a second basic benefit is health care, life and disability insurance, glasses, dental and some prescription. Just the basic benefit package and nothing too, too fancy.

S.

[kaput]

.

[ShaneNg]

I should clearify. I understand the details of being a independent contractor/self employed.

What I meant by contract work is going thru recruiting agency. Being on the recruiting agency's payroll but work for outside company. The recruiting agency will still deduct cpp and ei off the paychecks and pay the 4% vacation pay but nothing else.

S.

[teggypimp95]

Well my company when you go from contract to full time you receive,

sallery
rrsp plans
saving plans with company contributing 1.5x
full benifts
global coverge
stock

and many more perks. If you were to put just the benefits in doller format it would be about 5-10 grand depending on your plan. Going for chiro, dentist, messags anything you need and have it 100% covered it worth it.

[Euro838]

It really does depend on the company that you work for and they would offer an employee with the same benefits. The percentage is usually 20%-35%. 20% to me is probably the minimum as here is my breakdown of what you have to cover:

6% (2% for every week and 3 weeks seems the norm these days)
4% for holiday pay based on 10 calendar holidays
10% for everything else i.e. health, dental, paid leave, etc.

Obviously if there are other benefits like shares, stock options, pensions, etc, you'd have to factor those things in.

[jmc]

There's more then just benefits. For example, when your contract is finish, you'll have to find new work, which might mean being sideline for an unknown lenght of time (usually not too long these day), etc..
The ~30% extra Euro838 quoted sounds reasonable.

But getting back to the original question, regarding 'just the basic benefit package'; you can get a low end packages for less than 1k/year.

[bspot]

Originally posted by ShaneNg
I should clearify. I understand the details of being a independent contractor/self employed.

What I meant by contract work is going thru recruiting agency. Being on the recruiting agency's payroll but work for outside company. The recruiting agency will still deduct cpp and ei off the paychecks and pay the 4% vacation pay but nothing else.

S.

The recruiting agencies take a killing. For that reason, and tax reasons you are much better off to set up your own company. The tax savings can be massive.

[TrevorK]

Here are my year to date amounts for benefits (And I guess that wouldn't include all my vacation either):

Employer Paid Benefits
Desc Amount
WCB 8.59
AHC* 22.00
Dntal Base 75.00
Blue X 22.65
Basic Life* 7.30
AD&D 0.87
LTD 116.57
LAPP 185.84

This is paid every two weeks by my employer (Except dental, it's a once a month thing I think).