Many people may consider working at Google to be a dream job. With the revelation of this bombshell benefit, there’s no question about it.
Google’s Chief People Officer Laszlo Bock revealed to Forbes’ Meghan Casserly that if a U.S. Google employee passes away, their surviving spouse or domestic partner will receive a check for 50% of their annual salary … for a decade. And there’s no tenure either — all of Google’s employees are eligible.
“One of the things we realized recently was that one of the harshest but most reliable facts of life is that at some point most of us will be confronted with the death of our partners,” Bock said in the article. “And it’s a horrible, difficult time no matter what, and every time we went through this as a company we tried to find ways to help the surviving spouse of the Googler who’d passed away.”
The news of these extreme benefits has taken much of the business world by storm, if only for the fact that the revelation wasn’t the product of some orchestrated PR move but a simple declaration during an interview.
Forbes followed up the piece with this question: Will the IRS get a cut of those generous death benefits? The answer isn’t so cut and dry, and it depends mostly on how Google sets up the pay outs. But it is unlikely for the most part. Life insurance death benefits paid to a beneficiary in a lump sum are not treated as income to the recipient.
This tax-free exclusion covers payments made under endowment contracts, worker’s comp insurance contracts, employer’s group plans or accident and health insurance contracts.
Is this the type of benefit your business could even think about implementing? Let us know your thoughts about these extremely generous benefits or feel free to share your company’s great perks in the comments below.
