January 14, 2003
Sweet Belgium: job benefits not an extra
Now that our favourite HP employee is moving to more nutricious pastures, I was idleing away at the Google job benefits listing. Of course, more than half of our income goes to taxes, and we don't have that many beautiful landscapes and sights as Ovidiu has been posting recently, but it seems that we don't need that much extras over here:- A very decent public health coverage plan comes with your (dead-cheap) mutual insurance, which is largely funded by those taxes. Some guy worked hard for this.
- Holidays: at least 20'ish paid days, but 12 extra (paid) days are very common in IT. Also, a lot of employees have an extra paid month at the end of the year, and a holiday bonus too.
- As an employee, your income is largely protected, even during extended absense. There is new legislation offering people the possibility to take some (unpaid) time away from work (or working part time for a period), while their position is being reserved until their return (OK, this can be a nightmare to organize at the workplace, but if enough people do this, a vacancy becomes available automagically).
- Maternity leave is at 15 weeks at 75%, at a minimum. My wife was at home for 8 months, since she combined maternity leave with parental leave, which is another 3 months (with a measly compensation of 536 EUR / month).
- And while employees are working and paying taxes, they are saving money for a pension or retirement benefit. No strings attached, except when Belgium should go broke.