City law makes commuter benefits mandatory
September 17, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Attracting talent, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Law
As companies look for the best ways to help ease workers’ commuting woes, one locality has stepped in with a first-of-its-kind law.
These days, a lot of employers are asking: What should employers be doing to attract and retain employees who may have an hard time paying for the gas that gets them get to and from work?
Allow telecommuting? Shorten the week? Help co-workers carpool?
In San Francisco, employers’ minds have been made up for them. The city has just passed a law requiring companies to offer workers transportation benefits.
Starting in December of this year, all companies with 20 or more employees will be required to do one of the following:
- Start a program allowing companies to set aside pre-tax funds to pay mass transit expenses, in accordance with IRS regs
- Directly pay employees’ commuting expenses (for example, by buying them mass transit passes), or
- Set up van pools for employees.
Tags: commuter benefits, San Francisco
May 14th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Another government regulation to tax businesses. It all sounds good until the small buiness lays off a few workers to get below the 20 employees, moves the business out of the city or lays off some workers to cover this tax/fee/mandate. It doesn’t sound like muc, but mandating by law to have businesses cover these non business expenses is bad policy. If it is that important to the city offcials and tax payers, why doesn’t the city just make it available on their dime to all these employees?