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I wonder what are the most common packages that are usually negotiated instead of money; examples and cases based on your experience. I would focus on positions in Austria (so I would consider neither health insurance nor retirement since they are already addressed by law).

The only ones I have in mind are:

  • Additional vacation days;
  • Company car;
  • Gym;
  • Company's computer and other devices;
  • Additional retirement benefits;

... Can you please help me to extend this list with additional examples? Can for example travels be considered more convenient for companies instead of money?

EDIT: I specified the country (Austria)

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    you'll need to be specific about countries. Often there are taxation exemptions for certain benefits, which makes those more popular, but that differs strongly from country to country within EU.
    – KillianDS
    Jan 11, 2020 at 19:52
  • I specified the country
    – cyberdyne
    Jan 12, 2020 at 7:44
  • Flexi-time, work-from-home days, expense account. "Can for example travels..." What do you mean? "travels"? Anyway, why are you asking this question? Is there a particular problem you're trying to solve? Are you currently negotiating with a potential employer? Jan 12, 2020 at 14:11
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    Also, health insurance and retirement can be quite a thing even if already covered by law as this legal coverage is usually not the max you could get. I'm talking for Belgium but I guess this would be true for a lot of countries.
    – Laurent S.
    Jan 13, 2020 at 11:17
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    The car produces also costs for you, even if it is a company car, since you have to pay "Sachbezug" which is about 1-2% of the retail price of the car PER MONTH (even when the car is 10 years old). So make sure you bring that into the equation aswell. @quarague 14 paychecks is the norm in Austria, not even sure if it is legal to get less.
    – kirbby
    Mar 3, 2020 at 9:04

2 Answers 2

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From a taxation perspective, almost any employee perk is treated as if it were a payment, so there is little point for companies to create more paperwork.

IIRC, the main exceptions are

  • use of a company car: it is assumed that the car will be shared between business and private use, different schemes exist how to calculate that split and only the "private" part is treated as income
  • public transport subsidies: for employees without a company car, a metro pass can be substituted, a similar split-use assumption is made
  • employee discounts: below a rather generous limit, these do not affect taxation of wages
  • some financial products (in Germany, the term is "vermoegenswirksame Leistungen", quick googling suggests that Austria has similar provisions)

The latter is probably the most interesting to you, but also the most complicated from a taxation point of view. These do not need to be negotiated however, because you are already entitled to these and they are cost-neutral to your employer.

Pretty much any other perk will be treated the same as monetary compensation and it would be pointless to preallocate your salary in that way, from the employer perspective a gym membership is the same as asking for extra money and extra paperwork at the same time, and companies offering it are doing it mainly for reasons of "team building" or to reduce sick days.

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  • "pretty much every other perk".. but the perks you already mentioined are already many and should not br discounted.
    – guest
    Mar 1, 2020 at 10:47
  • @guest, right, my point is that anything that doesn't get special treatment tax-wise is not something that makes sense to negotiate and both you and your employer are better off if you just ask for the money. Mar 1, 2020 at 11:04
  • Sure there is no tax-free threshold for "small" gifts, like head phones etc ? I'd also add that further options are that the company gets you better work equipment (e.g. laptop) and lets you use it privately. Especially regarding the computer laptop, that's so common a perk, many don't consider it a perk at all. (And sometimes it's not exactly a perk if the company needs to follow strict safety guidelines with the laptop and you basically need to give them remote access to it, but that's another story.) Mar 2, 2020 at 3:21
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Independent of the country, you can negotiate anything of value to you. I have only worked in the US though, so it is advisable to consult locals.

What do you want to do in life? You can ask for things that you care about. Basecamp has a good list of perk:

  • $100/month Fitness Allowance
  • Charitable Gifts Match
  • 32 hour (4-day) Summer work week
  • Life Insurance
  • ...

Stack Exchange has a similar list. A while ago I made "good working conditions" list for academia (blog link), which contains things I would ask for.

You can ask for travel allowance, professional memberships, whatever. Getting company-paid local metro card is a nice perk, as it takes one more thing off my monthly bills.

In some cases you can try to trade one perk/offering for another, see

Canonical answer: it never hurts to ask (especially the first time).

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