Idaho Law Blog
Many, but not all Idaho employers offer benefits of some sort to their full-time employees. This could include vacation pay, health, dental or life insurance, sick pay, paid time off for holidays, or other similar benefits. Employment benefits of these types are a fantastic addition to the wage or salary that is earned by the employee. When most employees are looking at a job they take into consideration the entire package of pay and benefits to decide whether the job is worth taking. The key is to understand the role of benefits in an employment relationship.
It’s amazing to me how often I am asked by clients whether they can force their employer to provide certain benefits to them as an employee. The reality is that no employer is required to provide any benefits to any employee. There is currently no Idaho law nor is there any federal law that requires an employer to provide any specific benefits to their employees. The only exceptions to this is that these employers almost always have to provide Workers Compensation Insurance and unemployment insurance.
I think that because they are so often offered, most employees have come to believe that benefits are required. This is simply not true. Employee benefits really began to appear during the industrialization age when factories began being built and more jobs were offered in cities than previously before. Employers begin to discover that employees wanted something more than just a wage or salary to entice them to take a job. As a result, many employers began offering different types of benefits to their employees as a way of encouraging them to take a job.
Over time these benefits started to take the form of vacation pay, holiday pay, all types and kinds of insurances, payment for continuing education, and many other various types of benefits. Employers begin competing with these types of benefits again as a way of enticing employees to take certain jobs. This happens so often that it has essentially become the norm with most types of full-time employment.
The important thing to understand is that most benefit packages are not offered to part-time employees. Additionally an employer can change the benefit package they offer or maintain for their full-time employees at any time that they want. There is no law that exists which requires an employer to offer or continue offering any benefit of any sort.
So if you are a full-time employee and you currently have a good benefits package, count your blessings.
Call us toll free at 877-232-6101 or 208-232-6101 for a consultation with Lane Erickson and the Racine Olson team of Employment Law attorneys in Idaho. You can also email Lane Erickson directly at lve@racinelaw.net. We will answer your Idaho Employment Law questions and will help you solve your Idaho Employment Law needs.