Archive for Parking

Parking benefits are scarce.

April 8, 2008 at 8:41 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: ,

The expensive inconvenience.
It seems that a lot of companies are cutting costs by dumping the parking benefit these days. If any benefit is attractive it is this one. In Hawaii we have limited space, but when it is available company paid parking can be a powerful aphrodisiac to attract new employees. The average monthly parking stall downtown can range anywhere from $180-$300 per month. That is 2 to 3k per year off your salary for parking, so that 40k per year job now looks more like 37k a year.

One of my first recommendations to companies looking to make their benefits package more attractive is to pay for parking. It plays a large role in salaries these days. If you’re spending too much money on marketing, and recruiting it may be time to put this money to work for your company in the way of attaining, and retaining employees with better benefits. In most cases these benefits are reserved for upper level management if given at all. The parking war in Hawaii is only going to get tighter in the future as we grow, and unless you are a fan of public transportation (which is not a bad thing) get used to the inconvenience.

We need to start looking at alternatives as a State, and as employers before we end up like Seattle or San Francisco. The alternative to the parking benefit could be a state subsidized public transportation credit for employers who offer it to their employees who ride the bus, the boat, or in the train. Parking is not a problem for everyone in Hawaii, but when you work in downtown Honolulu it can be as simple as whether or not people want to work for you. You don’t want to lose that spot!

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