How would you compensate employees for commuting to work?
Suppose there are two employees: Alice and Bob, who do the same job at the same factory. Alice has a 10 minute (20RT) commute, Bob commutes 35 minutes(70RT). If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?
like a subscription!! yes!!!
they would pay you everyday to get to and from work. would it be a flat rate or by the length of commute? length in minutes? miles?
If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?
absolutely, people’s workdays should start when they begin their commute. I don’t know off the top of my head, but some companies and government jobs already comp people for their travel expenses, just extend that to commutes.
i used to work for Amazon. in the morning, I’d drive to a parking lot a few miles from the warehouse. then I’d get on a shuttle bus which would drop me off at the warehouse. (not enough parking at the warehouse)
Jeffy B paid me for the shuttle ride to and from the warehouse AND paid the shuttle driver.
In my opinion, I don’t think employees should be compensated for their commute. How an employee chooses to arrive to work and how far they live away from a company is not a responsibility of the company. Their job is to be ready to work when their shift starts.
However, this is an X-Y question. The overwhelming majority of jobs historically required you to show up to work. We didn’t consider paying for their commute unless they had to travel for work outside of commuting. This was never an issue.
You asked the “X” question, but the “Y” question (the question you’re probably asking) is how the burden of commuting should be handled for employees being asked to come in when they have been working remotely.
I think that there are many more nuances to this than simply compensation. If the employee has a working agreement with the company, and they have been managing their time with full-time remote hours, then they should consider that as part of the work agreement.
If they’re being asked to come in (when they would normally be WFH), that’s outside of the work agreement. It’s basically like being asked to get coffee for your boss or something. If it was advertised as part of the job, and you accepted it, then that’s fine. If you started work, and a year later, your boss asks you for daily coffee runs under the threat of being fired, that is not acceptable.
You have to keep in mind that the recent WFH popularity has challenged a lot of companies by making their own interests difficult. A lot of it is shitty stuff that the company doesn’t want to say out loud, like:
This kind of thing. Realistically, from an employee perspective, they’re doing the same work, and they don’t see any issue hanging around their house in their pajamas. From a higher-up perspective at some companies, though, they don’t have the same goals.
It makes sense that a lot of employees are leaving their positions with companies forcing them to come into the office. In my opinion, they’re breaking their working agreement. It may not be written down and it may not be a legal difference, but there is no doubt that they’re radically changing the work requirements, which might not be what they signed up for. And what if you’re in a wheelchair?
Unfortunately, if Alice and Bob live in the US, there is hardly any hope for them if the company doesn’t have goodness in its heart. The workers’ rights laws in the US are almost non-existent. There are even about three dozen states that can even legally fire you for being gay. It’s that bad.
In my opinion, workers’ rights should be highlighted, and side effects like working agreements and compensation for commuting should be solved problems by proxy.
I believe my company’s arrangements are agreeable for remote workers.
For those who are classified as fully remote, they can claim travel expenses on mileage up to a certain range. Basically, the radius of the city that their “core” office is based out of plus the surrounding towns.
For those who are hybrid (expected to show up at least once a week) and fully onsite, they don’t get any mileage for travel to their home office but do get mileage to satellite offices, calculated by distance from the home office.
The compensation is also very generous. While I am hybrid, I have one day per week at my home office and one day per week at another, and that is more than enough to pay for my gas (even factoring in non-work related travel, which I admittedly don’t do much of).
But there are definitely some people who are able to benefit from this more than others. If you live a 5-minute drive away from the furthest office from your home office (would that I could be so lucky), you get to claim a lot of travel reimbursement with minimal actual travel, which seems unfair for those who are routinely asked to commute even further than their norm.
of course the Americans are against it
"BuT WHY IS SHE GEAtatING PaId MORE"
Pretty normal here in the San Francisco / Silicon Valley. Although it usually comes in the form of chartered busses, transit passes or free parking. And parking in San Francisco can be like $400 a month, so free parking is nice.
The commute in this area averages 1-2 hours one way for many. So transportation perks are important to retaining high value employees.
And because the commute sucks, remote / hybrid work options are also key for many gigs.
It’s a small country so most commutes are relatively short anyway.
There’s also al lot of employers that offer other benefits or ways of compensating. Things like discounted or even free public transport, free parking, use of company cars, tax benefits when you purchase a bicycle etc.
Why? It’s just a fraction of the salary anyway. Like most people only get €0.20 per km since that is what an employer can compensate tax free. With an average one way commute in my country of 20km that’s only €8 a day for a return trip so about €160 a month.
Or a lot of people get a lease car from the company as a perk but then they don’t get compensated for their travel cost.
If they can take public transit I'd pay for it. I'd give them up to $2,000 hiring bonus to buy an electric bike (maybe find a good company and get a discount) and offer relocation fees to get within range of either. If you're driving, use park and ride and I'll pay for it.
Other than that, WFH.
Obviously. What, you think they were yesterday?
Hey guys, this dude thinks the 70 Russias yesterday, what a dingus
You want me to give up 10 hours of my say to get paid for 8 hours of work? No thanks.
Sitting in traffic still keeps me from living my life. I’ve got a limited amount of time, so Im not giving it up cheaply.
Remote work where possible is the best option for both parties. If only employers could believe it.
Sounds like a simple choice. Moving house to be closer to where jobs are is getting more and more expensive.
So that leaves moving jobs.
I wonder why so many employers are complaining ’No one wants to work’.
This is so simple equation, ai can not believe how many people are agains it.
One my friend lives near Oslo and works in Oslo. He checks in as soon as he sits in a train and starts checking his emails.
I like the idea of the commute being included in the work hours. When you start driving to work, that’s when you’re clocked in.
Alice lives closer so she can get to work faster and get more done sonce the company only loses 20 minutes of Alice-time.
Bob is farther so thats 70 minutes of Bob-time not doing work during his shift.
Maybe companies will begin to factor in the lost time of commutes and hire more locally. It could get more organized.
I am sure people’s time is being wasted by inefficiency. Like, company X has several factories in the state. How many people from city A are working in the factory at city B while B’s commute up to city A?
Lots to think about. Traffic, time, privacy? I dunno. Just thinking as I go :)
The same company. If they are far from their employees it’s not the emplouees’ fault.
They hired Bob in the first place, meaning they want his work. Now it’s on company time instead of the people’s time. How much work do people actually do in their 9-5s?
Try not looking at this from a money perspective over a people perspective. Companoes threw fits and anguish at the ideas of 40 hour workweek, weekends, overtime pay, etc, yet here we are! 32 hour work weeks and commute time included on the 8 hours can be next.
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