um
i think um
uh actually i'm uh fairly pleased with the
benefits that we have at the
uh working for a large corporation
and for me there's absolutely no question what's the most important benefit
right
i think it's health care it's what i think everybody would say that
oh and then if you try to get it outside of your uh corporation you're gonna pay an arm and a leg
right belonging to a group is the belonging to a health group is probably the most important protection you can have after you
right
um so the um sometimes i think it's more important than salary
uh do you also get dental
yes and um
i don't know if i would rank that second but um since i have three boys uh it it can turn out to be important you know in a in a given year dental can dental expenses can really kill you
oh i know
now my husband is with uh Northwest Airlines and he gets uh you know the full health and dental and uh we have four children and what you pay just to have teeth cleaned is outrageous
right
and i don't know how people that don't have it can afford it
right it's uh
or maybe they don't
right uh and then uh
if the cleaning doesn't get you the orthodontics will
that's right that's right
uh i guess that would be up there uh i'm not sure if i would rank uh how i would rank that next to say compared to retirement or uh
um
um pre tax savings was another thing that i think is a a great a great benefit when i
uh-huh
right
and i really i think it's really something that the uh the government ought to encourage more because uh there are all these complaints about how we're not a saving country and where the average savings rate is something like four percent in this country and fifteen percent in uh Germany and Japan
right
um
well it's a lot easier to to save it when you don't get your hands on it first
right when you have the when you have the uh the economy to scale and everything that a large corporation has and you can uh offer some incentive
and if the government goes along by not taxing it when you put it aside you can really build up uh the savings and the that you wouldn't otherwise do and
right
uh what about what about uh lesser uh benefits perhaps for you but for for the women in the in the uh corporation for example uh oh
leave
yeah do they have even have do they have father leaves or anything like that
you know i i don't think so yet they may have uh just plain parental leave which either one can take uh i their uh i know their maternity leave is on the order of six weeks which i think is too short
uh-huh
uh
oh i do too
uh uh i really think that we need to
get into the mold where we talk about years rather than months or weeks
oh i think i think it's just a crying shame uh for a mother to have to go back to work at six weeks
right and and uh
she isn't recovered and uh the infant needs her desperately at that point and time
there
there ought to be uh
uh some compromise that could where uh where the person would be guaranteed
a uh career type position but not necessarily a continuation of exactly the same position uh in exchange for a longer period of time
um-hum
right i agree
it's uh it's so important to families then and uh and yet anybody whose gotten far enough to get a good salary is really reluctant to give that up
oh sure especially in this day and age you don't want to start over again anywhere
um
that
yeah you're right i think you've put your finger on the one benefit that i that i would most like to see uh changed um
the uh parental leave
well i think they're at they're coming they've come a long way um at least some companies
right
some of them uh my girlfriend in particular that works for a a rental car agency and uh as manager and uh they have a very very poor leave policy
and uh
i just don't know how how women do it particularly single parents who don't have the support at the other end
right
uh
they do it by shortchanging their kids there no other way
that's right that's exactly right
i mean uh unless they're part of some extended family which is unlikely um with people moving as much
right
and uh they're just it's just a terrible choice you shouldn't have to make it uh
um-hum
right
and uh
one of the benefits we get of course is travel
oh right boy would i like to have that
it's wonderful the only trouble is that you can afford to go anywhere but you can't afford to stay once you get there
yeah
oh listen i have friends in a lot of different cities if you'd just fly me there i'll take care of that
that's right you have to have an awful lot of fun just just getting there is has to be half the fun
right
so and uh
i guess the uh the idea
