What would you consider to be an "excellent" pension scheme or holiday entitlement?

easterbunni

I certainly wouldn't use the word to describe the basic bare bones statutory minimum employer pension contribution or holiday entitlement, would you?

I will do the basic bare bones minimum work and be an "excellent" employee then

I'd say 40 days paid holiday and 10% employer pension contribution (of full wage, not chickening out with up to "qualifying earnings") would be "excellent"!

Barny1979

Well I get 33 days leave, plus Bank Holidays and potential 13 flexi days. Get 10% pension contribution too.

Marcon

easterbunni said:

I certainly wouldn't use the word to describe the basic bare bones statutory minimum employer pension contribution or holiday entitlement, would you?

I will do the basic bare bones minimum work and be an "excellent" employee then

I'd say 40 days paid holiday and 10% employer pension contribution (of full wage, not chickening out with up to "qualifying earnings") would be "excellent"!

What's excellent to one person is paltry to another, and you need to look at the overall remuneration package - a salary of £50K + mininum pension, or £45K + 20% pension contributions - do the sums!

74jax

I think it depends. I loved my holidays so I had a package with 35 days basic holiday (not including bank holidays) and always bought 5 days too. You then got an extra day for each year worked after 3 years to a max of 5,so I had 45 days holiday.
Someone who wouldn't use them all wouldn't see this as a bonus (although you could sell unused).. 

Thrugelmir

easterbunni said:

I will do the basic bare bones minimum work and be an "excellent" employee then

Then you are unlikely to be rewarded with promotion. Make you own bed and lie in it. 

Savvy_Sue

They may feel that the pension scheme itself is 'excellent' rather than their contributions to it? I don't know what would make it so ... 

As for holidays, is there also flextime? I could have another 13 days off each year if I built the time up. 

AskAsk

the best i got was 29 days of holiday and it started at 25 with an extra day for each year of service and 15% employer contribution to the DC pension scheme. 

i have never been lucky enough to be a member of a final salary pension scheme as they are by far the best pension schemes to be in.

i would have loved to work in a job that had 40 days of paid annual leave.

steampowered

I think statutory minimum holiday entitlement is fine. The statutory minimum is 28 days for someone who is employed full time. Compare that with the United States where the average person gets only 7.6 days of paid holiday. 

Statutory minimum pension contributions are a bit rubbish though. The minimum is 3% from the employer and 5% from the employee, 8% total. Pension contributions of 8% are not really enough if you want to have a decent standard of living in retirement.

Thrugelmir

steampowered said:

Statutory minimum pension contributions are a bit rubbish though. The minimum is 3% from the employer and 5% from the employee, 8% total. Pension contributions of 8% are not really enough if you want to have a decent standard of living in retirement.

It's a start.  Increasing employee contributions has to be gradual. To allow people to adjust. 

Sanne

Good holiday for me is 28 days + bank holidays, excellent 30. I wouldn’t accept a job with 20 unless I really had to - my current is 23, going up to max 25 + one day for your birthday.
Flexitime is always great, too - not been lucky enough in the private sector as it was usually expected to work extra hours - unpaid - either way. Already happy if I can have flexibility if I have to leave earlier / start later etc.

Pension I’ve not been lucky enough to get more than the bare minimum apart from during my short stint working for a council. Matching employer contributions up to 10% would be good; final salary pension schemes obviously excellent- and perfect is to what most of the public sector offers.

thegentleway

I get 30 days + 4 shut down days + 8 bank holidays. Pension contribution rates are currently 9.6% of salary and 21.1% for my employer. Don’t think it gets more excellent than that