San Francisco has required that all employers with 20 or more employees provide commuter benefits.
From the California Chamber of Commerce:
Beginning 120 days after August 22, 2008 [December 22, 2008], San Francisco employers with 20 or more employees must provide commuter benefits to employees who work at least 10 hours of work per workweek within the geographic boundaries of San Francisco. This includes offering employees at least one of the following transportation benefits:
1. A pre-tax election of a maximum of $110 per month, consistent with current federal law.
2. An employer-provided transportation pass (or provide reimbursement for) equal in value of $45 (or more) per month.
3. Employer provided transportation at no cost to employees.
Normally these types of regulations cause a big uproar in the business community, but I haven’t heard to much about it. I guess it’s just the cost of doing business in SF.
The text of the ordinance can be found here. And a more complete explanation of the ordinance can be found here.
I am guessing that if you are doing business in SF proper, you’ve come to tacitly accept these sorts of things as reality, right?
I hope to see more cities like San Francisco require that employers offer employees telecommuting options. With high gas and energy costs, it makes me wonder why more haven’t already implemented similar practices.
It’s not too surprising that California would mandate this.
I do think that every HR department should offer this and it shouldn’t of waited until it was mandated.
We began to offer this benefit this year and employees signed up immediately! Being able to save around $600/year in taxes on transportation benefits was very appealing.
Best of all, it takes very minimal time to manage the program and saves the Business some money on taxes too. It’s a win-win!