Yacht Crew Insurance, Disability, Retirement and more

Pascal, I have to agree. That was a big list of benefits. Business is maxed out when it comes to benefits. Some serious tort reform would change insurance needs dramatically and free up a lot of money for pay increases.

Looks like a great benefit package, 50% matching 401K and all.

Alternative viewpoint: If individuals knew they would always be turned away if they show up at a hospital without insurance... they would have more incentive to fund it themselves. As it is, individuals know they'll get a free ride...

OK, having said that, I expect there's a threshold on the low/no income side where humanity and compassion suggests need for a parachute. (But problems with most US parachute programs are the fraud, waste, abuse... and boated management and oversights expenses.)

-Chris

Wow, I am impressed with Quiktrip's benefit program, almost as good as working for the taxpayer. Not sure how they afford it. Few small business's could ever consider a plan like that. Paid sabbatical, thought that was reserved for teachers and professors. Nothing is free, one way or the other the general public pays for all, either thru higher prices or taxes. Seriously, how do you think this will all end? Bankruptcy?

Some folks don't have the mental capacity to feed themselfs and their families: That also includes thinking ahead for an education and a good job, then a home, health insurance, THEN a big family with lots of babies who needs health care.
Some are probably lazy and trying to milk the system for a free ride, in most cases however, they have IQs of a 13 year old and will never get ahead and be responsible.
What are you going to do? Dump them in the ditch, or some kind of governement health care like all Federeal employees have, including senators, congressmen, military personnel, State and City employees, etc.?
If not, then Government paid birth control could be a huge investment for the Tax Payer.

All sounds good and time will tell if implemented. From what I have seen on TV programs, yacht crews work hard and long hours. They deserve good pay.

FWIW, I think that kind of philosophy should apply in the broader business sense to multiple relationships: owner, investors, board, management, wage employees, customers, gov't, etc. Balance and equilibrium can be good, imbalance can be bad.

Possibly-provocative side note: I think one could make the argument that greedy employers caused trade unions. A logical backlash, which could have been predicted. (An then a whole bunch of other stuff happened, too.) But the basic premise of that argument is about the imbalances that occurred during the industrial revolution, and all of the imbalances that had existed before that... OK, wandering off-topic, sorry...

-Chris

Yep... Didn't mean my earlier note as an argument for or against... just an alternative optic on the problem.

-Chris

Yeah, and my ramblings was not really a direct answer to you, just a thought.
Being half European and half American I have seen the health care system from both worlds: It seems other countries get more bang for their buck when it comes to general health, child mortality, life expectancy, etc.
That being said, it is excellent in the US if you have good insurance.
If you don't, you are S.... out of luck.

The bottom line in this discussion, is do employers HAVE to provide health insurance, or is health insurance a perk that some employers choose to provide? I would think in this country it is considered a perk (on small companies with say under 100 employees).

When it comes to yacht jobs. There is such a myriad of considerations for say a Captain. It's not just the pay, it's not just the perks, it's also the boat or type of boat, it's also the fit of the owner and Captain, it's also the usage of the boat. Some jobs can have the best criteria for a given Captain, but if the boat has guests on it 300 days a year OR sits 360 days a year, it's the totally WRONG job for that Captain.

Now I don't think owners HAVE to provide health insurance. If the owner pays very well, well you can then go buy any insurance you want out of your own pocket.

The other issue is people still quote the $1000 per foot per year for a Captain, from time to time. Heck, people were paying that back in the late 90's, when that was actually very good pay in that era. Now I see most are around $1200 per foot per year, some much more than that. But at $1000 per foot per year, the Captain is making a lot less than in 1999 when that money went a heck of a lot further.

I don't really know the answer, providing health insurance would entice more crew to want to work for you. And, I'm sure if an owner really wants to hire you, you could barter that into your contract. But I really think an owner can choose to pay whatever they want and provide all of the benefits or none, and as crew you can decide whether or not you want to work for that person and take the job. Also in a boat that travels internationally a lot, even if only the bahamas, what good is US health insurance in that situation anyways, unless it's something severe enough that you fly home for treatment, but are you healthy enough to even fly home. The other issue is how long it takes to even get a doctors appointment in the US with insurance.

It looks like Quiktrip's higher-cost benefits are for full-time employees. To really know if that's a great company benefit package, I'd have to know what the ratio of full-time to part-time employees is. The same is true for your small business.

That's true. Companies like West Marine, in their stores only the managers are full time employees and get benefits.

The health insurance standards vary so widely for international and US companies that comparisons are apples and oranges. I have seen EU companies that have offices in the US offer different standards based on region. I can honestly say the EU side has the better deal but there are a lot of factors at play. But any global public corporation is now driven to mainly satisfy stockholder returns, so the motivations can be worlds apart. EU works councils or labor unions have a stronger voice than US labor unions which only are heard in a few select industries, so no one is really looking out for the average guy/girl/family.

There is no arguing that Health Insurance should be available to all, and it comes down to who pays for it. If there are not enough payers, the government steps in with premium assistance, but the assistance is born by the taxpayer, and in our US system, mainly the middle class bears this burden, and it is shrinking as a result of it. For us to copy an EU or Canadian Health System is a great idea in principle, but the practice falls apart when you consider the fact that the US tax system is so different and IRS centric. You would first have to re-do (abolish?) the IRS in order to have a chance at integrating a truly comprehensive national health care system. But the tax lobbyist's (attorneys) provide road blocks to this type of large series of fortunate events, the IRS is a huge jobs program with a level of ineptitude that one can not imagine, and the politicians lack courage to represent the people that put them into office. Obamacare essentially shifted funds from Medicare to Medicaid to give it a start, but the system is bound to financially fail as passed and that is very frustrating for the US.

Without a tax revolution / reset there will never be consensus on how the Health Care premiums are fully funded, and we will be having this discussion for all of our lives and our children's as well, which is quite unfortunate.

I looked at it more carefully, and I didn't see anything different. From QuickTrip's website: "Part-Time Employees may enroll in the standard QuikTrip Benefits Plan at their second anniversary, given they’ve met the minimum number of hours worked." The way I interpret that quote is that a part-time employee has no good benefits package for at least two years; I say "at least two years" because of the additional requirement of meeting some undisclosed number hours worked. Did I interpret that statement from their website correctly?

I can't agree with you that most of their employees are full time. According to QuikTrip, there a five full-time managers per store and an undisclosed number of part-time clerks per store. I suspect that there are more clerks than managers, meaning more part-time employees. I'm not including warehouse, bakery, and commissary workers in the part-time/full-time tally, because I can't find anything yet about the number of those employees. I'm still looking into this, but I would appreciate you directing me to the info that leads you to say "most of their employees are full time except for students."

To answer the question. Healthcare is available to all yacht crew. The question is, whether or not they want to pay for it. Whether the owner provides or participates in it or not, anyone can get health care insurance on their own.

Now OB you have a huge misconception on private health care. Since obamacare passed it has become largely un-achievable or un-affordable for most middle class people. Since 2015, individual health care coverage has at least doubled in cost, if not more, and deductables have also tripled or quadrupled. Prior to 2015 a 7,000 or $10,000 deductable was almost unheard of, now it is the norm.