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Comment by athenot | Hacker News Reader

It's just another perk that's customary in large US corporations.

By comparison, it's like the ticket repas and chèques vacances in the French companies—getting subsidies for food and vacations would look quite odd to Americans.

Different cultures, different perks.

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> getting subsidies for food and vacations would look quite odd to Americans

Silicon Valley companies frequently subsidize food for their employees.

Because it's a tax writeoff and the more time workers are at the office, the more work is getting done. Or so the managerial thought process goes.

I'm just saying, I don't think food subsidies look "quite odd" to Americans, I think they look fairly normal.

It's very unusual outside of Silicon Valley.

I don't think so - plenty of employers offer free cafeterias, and provide dinner to people working late or weekends.

In many European countries it would probably be considered a taxable benefit for the employee, and would increase the employee taxes. Just as a background why some things are different across the pond.

It's a taxable benefit in the US too, I'm not sure where the parent's "tax writeoff" comment is coming from. Google actually got in some trouble recently for not reporting their free food to the IRS.

Presumably he means that it's a cost, therefore paid with pre-tax dollars.

Certain teams at Apple get free dinners to boost morale when working late. This included a pretty nice catered meal once a week in my department. No doubt, this is common at industry leaders.

That's not so much a perk as it is very cheap overtime pay. It would be a perk if they gave you dinner even when you leave at 5PM.

There was nothing stopping us from eating and going home. It's not as though someone was keeping watch over us and demanding work for food. I always felt respected and appreciated.

Did people who left on time still get bonuses and promotions. Would they have continued to provide food if everyone was out the door at 5PM?

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