"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:baadnSedEYn-


"Small" business is notorious for shortchanging its employees.


Not true at all in my experience. If anything, small businesses consider
their employees to be very valuable contributors and tend to treat them
accordingly.

Stick to your big business and Wal-Mart stories.

Eisboch


Your personal experience obviously is different.

The only small businesses I know of that for sure have good benefits are
unionized construction contractors, because the bennies are negotiated as
part of the overall "pay" package.

Thus, an electrician whose union negotiates a $50 an hour rate, might get
$35 an hour gross for pay, and the remainder is split among health care,
retirement, whatever. The union and its members decide how much of that
gross dollar amount does to "pay" and how much goes to bennies.

Typically, the contracts also cover the contractor and his/her office
employees.

That happens to be the kind of health insurance I have right now.


In order to attract, train and retain valuable employees, non-union small
businesses more often than not offer:

Competitive wages in line with businesses in the same industry.
Fully paid or majority of cost paid health and dental plans.
Workman's comp insurance.
Profit sharing in many cases.
Retirement plans with company contributions (varies on financial capability
of company)
Advancement, raises and promotions based on merit. (Important)
Holidays, vacations, personal time and owner's "screw it, it's a beautiful
day, let's pay everyone for a full day and knock off early".
Lack of "them" vs. "us" culture.

I've worked for three small businesses, founded and owned another, one
"big" business and 9 years of military in my working career. We often
interfaced with large, unionized companies. My old filing cabinet is full
of résumé's and job applications from many union employees that wanted a
breath of fresh air.

There aren't many small, unionized businesses, other than small construction
companies that draw from the union pool for employees. And they tend to be
here today, gone tomorrow operations.

Eisboch