Homework: Pay and Benefits in another Country
For this homework, prepare a short report describing the pay and benefits of a country of your choice. Your only restriction is that you CANNOT use any of the countries discussed in Chapter 14 of the textbook (USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, India, or China). Otherwise, choose a country that is of interest to you.
Part A: First, answer the following questions about this country:
• Name the country and in which world region the country is located.
• Are health insurance and/or retirement plans part of a universal "social welfare system" of the country? If so, explain how it is funded and who is allowed to participate in the system.
• If there is not a universal health care system, how do citizens of that country obtain health insurance?
• Are there any legal requirements for companies regarding retirement benefits?
• How are wages set in this country? Is there a minimum wage?
• How many paid-days off are required by law (e.g. holiday, vacation, sick days), if any?
• What is the country's legal requirements for maternity/paternity leave and extended sick leave?
• Did you identify any interesting legally required employee benefits in this country?
• What resources are you using to find information about the country's social welfare system, minimum wage laws, and laws related to setting pay and benefits? Share specific websites where you found helpful information.
Part B: Second, compare your country to one of your teammate's country in a brief paragraph: how are benefits and wages similar or different between the two countries. Be sure to indicate which country you are using as the comparison (and which team member researched that country).
From Teammate:
• My country is Hungary.
• I utilized a few different sources for this homework. One extremely helpful source was OECD.org, which provided me with a country profile on Hungary breaking down their public pension system and health care system.
• Both the retirement and health insurance system in Hungary are universal and publicly mandated. All citizens participate in both. The retirement system is a defined benefit plan with a pay-as-you-go structure. It contains a public pension combined with a minimum pension. The pension is funded with taxes as well as the contributions of wages or salary made by the individual. The healthcare insurance given to all citizens is funded by a combined effort of citizen taxes and the National Health Insurance Fund, which receives its funding from taxes and fees from both employees and employers.
The contribution rate for the pension system in Hungary is 26.5% of the employees taxable income. Employers pay 18% and the employee pays 8.5%. All of the employers' contributions are funneled to the state pension scheme. Voluntary contributions can also be made with a ceiling of 2% and can be shared by the employer and employee. These contributions are tax-exempt.
The minimum wage in Hungary is government mandated and is 963 Hungarian Forints an hour for most employees and 1,259 Forints an hour for professional workers.
Hungarian employees are entitled to at least 20 days off a year in addition to national holidays.
Hungarian employees are entitled to 15 paid sick days a year. If an employee exceeds 15 days they are then covered with a sickness benefit by the country's social security system. Pregnant women are entitled to 24 weeks of maternity leave, and the leave must begin 4 weeks prior to the scheduled delivery date.
One interesting requirement in Hungary is that when an employee is terminated from a position, the employer must have a justified reason in writing. This is interesting to me because I am so used to the employment at-will model that is most often used here in the US. I am curious as to how this affects HR processes and if businesses face difficulties with this requirement.
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
• The answer must be using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, typed, with one-inch margins on all sides.
• The response also includes a cover page containing the student's name, the title of the homework, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
• Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.