For this homework we were supposed to interview our parents or someone else who we know about the benefit packages they receive form their employers. This task turned out to be much more complicated than I thought it would, because on the one side the parents of an international student are naturally within a complete different benefit system than American employees, which makes it hard to compare and on the other side I just know some persons who are employed at the University of Idaho, whose benefit plan is surely already described by one of my classmates.
That's why I thought to describe the German system of benefits, which is definitely not comparable to the American, should give a good impression how the subject of benefits is handled in other countries.
As an interview partner I chose our family accountant who answered me general as well as very specific questions to this subject.
As you definitely know the United States are the only of the so called Western civilized countries which don't have a mandatory health insurance system. As free to choose as you are in the U.S. as forced you are in Germany. .
Health Insurance, Disability Insurance, Insurance for Redundancy as well as Retirement Plans are all enforced by law and mandatory to pay for every employee and employer. .
But still, there are differences and possibilities to choose. Where they are and who has actually the choice I would like to point out in the following paragraphs.
Basically the costs for the most insurance services are shared to equal amounts by the employer and the employee. The difference here to the American system is that there is just a limited to no choice which fees to pay. .
A regular employee has a mandatory package of insurances and fees which consist out of:.
Kind of Insurance Percentage of the Salary before taxes:.
Employer 50% / Employee 50%.
Health Insurance 14 % - 14.5%1.
Annuity Assurance / .
Retirement Plan 19.