Legally Required Benefits
The subject of benefits for employees is multi-faceted and sometimes controversial. Of course, there are those benefits that are legally required while others are discretionary. When it comes to the discretionary benefits, there is much talk about what is standard and customary for full-time employees and what is called for with part-time employees. This report shall answer whether firms should offer benefits to part-time workers. If they should, there are questions whether they should offer one or more things like paid time off (PTO), 401(k) retirement contributions and health insurance. While some may think it generous and perhaps even ethically required to offer such benefits to part time workers, there is also a cost-benefit dimension to this decision that business owners and managers must properly consider.
Analysis
Before getting into whether the aforementioned benefits should be extended to part-time workers, one has to remember that the primary objective of any business is to make a profit. If a business cannot at least break even, the business will almost certainly eventually fail unless there is a money supply to prop up said business. Part and parcel of employee people while at the same time...
With that in mind, one could take the Milton Friedman point-of-view and look at whether it makes monetary sense to offer discretionary benefits like paid time off, 401(k) (including match) and health insurance to part-time employees. So often, the practice makes little to no monetary sense and is often not really needed from a business standpoint. Further, doing so would reduce profits and that is the antithesis of the Friedman point-of-view since the decision would be entirely voluntary (Friedman, 1970). Indeed, part-time workers are often paid a fairly low wage and giving them extra benefits could lead to the employee costing more than what they bring to the company in terms of return. Even if the extension of benefits like that yield a net gain, there is the question of profit maximization and whether the benefits really do help the business more than they cost.
There is another angle to this discussion and that is the subject of corporate social responsibility, or CSR for short. Even if such benefits are not legally required, it can obviously raise the standard of living and level of benefit to the employee. It also stands…
