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Comment by hardtke | Hacker News Reader

Article misses an important point. Free food is a benefit, and ERISA requires all employees get the same benefits. If you have a company with lots of low paid workers, it doesn’t work financially. Silicon Valley firms mostly contract out low wage jobs (janitorial, security) partially for this reason.

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Google janitors and security definitely eat in our cafeterias. It's an even bigger deal for them than it is for us.

to his defense he said "lots of"

> Article misses an important point. Free food is a benefit, and ERISA requires all employees get the same benefits. If you have a company with lots of low paid workers, it doesn’t work financially. Silicon Valley firms mostly contract out low wage jobs (janitorial, security) partially for this reason.

ERISA seems narrowly focused on retirement plans and insurance, can you point me to more information on the lunch aspect, or some language that would suggest a broader applicability.

This is very interesting to hear. In Germany, we don't have a law as such, and the employees of the company I work for that work less than 40 hours per week have to pay for food at the cafeteria, while those who do get it for free. If I understand ERISA correctly, that would be illegal in the US.

I could see it being illegal under EU law too - as indirect discrimination

In Germany, free lunch is a taxable income. It might explain the difference between full and part time employees. How does it look like in your payslip?

It’s not as simple as that. The employer can support lunch up to a set limit by day (I think currently 6.40 EUR, but I might be wrong on the exact number per day) and depending on the exact way things are laid out, the reminder is taxed flat at 25% and not subject to social security. It’s actually one of the best perks that an employer can give (the others are paying for a transport ticket, or a bike). It provides real value, everyone has to eat and not paying for lunch translates into real money unlike a flipper table.

Is this true for remote employees as well? E.g., suppose my colleagues at HQ and I are in the same meeting, I dial in to the meeting, and onsite employees receive lunch provided by our employer.

Is my employer explicitly obligated for me to get my own lunch, at their expense?

No, they don't have to make sure every employee enjoys the benefit, they just have to not exclude anyone from it. Unfortunate coincidences like being 1000 miles away from the benefit are unfortunate.

Similarly I'm guessing that if those employees were to visit the office, they'd be given free food too.

I've found my employer will cover these lunches, though it may not be strictly necessary for them to do so.

And to my sibling commenter: when I am at HQ, I am able to partake in the free food perk.

That's absurd. The cost of letting support staff feed at the trough is a drop in the bucket compared to the other financial and management issues of contractors/vendors.

Most places without free food still contract out generic support services, as is standard in the modern specialized economy.

my company had offices in bay area and chicago. No free food in chicago, free food in sfo.

Same for Bloomberg. Free food in my office (it was great too, A+), none in New York or SFO.

Princeton, I assume?

Correct.

That could also be due to local competition for talent. There aren't as many places in Chicago with free food as in SF.

Depends on the industry, I suppose.

My experience from interviewing and first hand employment experience is that most finance shops in Chicago offer at least a free lunch. Some also offer hot breakfast and dinner as well. (Sometimes dinner is left overs from lunch, depends on the shop).

I've only worked in one trading shop that didn't offer lunch, but they were small and out of the financial district.

I briefly contracted at a shop that even extended the free lunch me, even while on the clock.

Outside of finance, I dont have any direct knowledge. This is over 15 years of working as an FTE in either trading or financial services as a developer.

Same experience in Chicago trading . Cold breakfast (cereal, bagels, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc) and paid lunch. Sometimes dinner, depends on the shop.

That's a very minor one its mostly for cost savings and also now a days makes the gender disparity figures look better by getting all lose low paid female cleaners off the books

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