Legally Required Benefits

Legally Required Benefits

Statutory or legally required benefits consist of benefits that employers are mandated by law to offer to their workers (Martocchio, 2015). They are required by law to ensure that employees and their families are provided with medical care and retirement benefits and protected from economic distress due to disability or loss of employment (Martocchio, 2015). They are also required by law to mitigate employees against liabilities arising due to workplace illnesses or injuries. According to Gary (2016), examples of legally required benefits include unemployment insurance, Medicare, social security, and worker’s compensation insurance.

Social security is required by law to provide income for disabled and retired employees and their families (Gary, 2016). Medicare is required to reimburse medical clinics, doctors, and hospitals for services provided to retirees and people living with long-term disabilities (Martocchio, 2015). Unemployment insurance is required to provide weekly income to eligible employees who have lost their jobs through lay-offs (Martocchio, 2015). Lastly, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law to cover medical costs due to workplace illnesses and injuries and compensate employees for lost income due to such illnesses or injuries.

An example of a legally required benefit that can be waived is the leave benefit. Although employers are mandated under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to offer leaves pertaining to birth, foster care, and care for immediate family members, employers are not mandated to offer leaves such as vacation, funeral leave, or jury duty (Gary, 2016). On the other hand, tuition reimbursement is an additional benefit that should be made into a legally required benefit. Employees spend a lot of money on tuition to acquire additional skills and knowledge to enhance their productivity and performance. Therefore, employers should be compelled to refund tuition expenses considering that the acquired knowledge is applied to achieve organizational goals.

References

Gary, D. (2016). Human Resource Management. New York: Pearson Education.

Martocchio, J. J. (2015). Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource PDF ebook. New York: Pearson Education.

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What are legally required benefits and why are they required by law? Can any of these benefits be waived?

Provide an example. Provide one additional benefit that should be made into a legally required benefit.