4 ms·

Free food provided by the company is for the company's benefit. If they asked you to stay another hour each day and improve your relationships with coworkers, t

• bg24 6y ago
  Agree. Most companies do not get this though, and think of this as an additional cost.
• Ozzie_osman 6y ago
  Plus it's a way to transfer money to employees without income taxes (if you assume that people are willing to accept slightly lower pay to get these benefits).
  • imposterr 6y ago
    Depends on where you are. Benefits such as free food are taxable in some places.
    • hawaiianbrah 6y ago
      Really? Where? I hadn’t considered that.
      • dogma1138 6y ago
        In most countries it’s considered a BIK so the value of those benefits is added to your taxable income, I don’t know how it works in the US and while it might no affect your federal income tax it might affect your local/state income taxes. Food, car allowances/company car, travel and gym vouchers and virtually any other kind of benefit are taxed all over the world it’s also one of the easiest things to tax since the company knows how much it’s paying per head for each of those items. Basically if it’s an expense that can be expensed for normal business reasons it’s not a BIK but anything else is taxable. For food specifically if it’s just your normal lunch it’s a BIK if it’s a lunch while traveling for business or performing another business related activity such a business lunch with a client it’s an allowable expense.
      • rawrfml 6y ago
        Just a concrete example. Back when I worked for Square, lunch used to be $x. This was reimbursed on your paycheck and thus subject to income tax.
• Aeolun 6y ago
  Personally I’m happy if the company realizes it makes good economic sense, and also makes me happy. Too many companies will not provide food or overtime.
• cletus 6y ago
  Why can't it be mutually beneficial? I really dislike this "us vs them" attitude. Sure the company has free food and sure you can have lunch with your colleagues and sure that's more likely to happen than if you had to find your own lunch but... - you don't have to have lunch with your colleagues - you don't have to eat at your desk or work through lunch - you don't have to have a short lunch I love the food simply because it's something I don't want to have to think about. I'm certainly not going to make my own lunch. It's not even about the money of going out and buying lunch. I just don't want to think about what I want for lunch today, where should I get it from, when should I go, how long will I have to queue, will it be a pain getting out of and back into the building (eg elevator queues) and so on. I just eat whatever is on offer that day. So while the company may benefit from you being more likely to eat with your colleagues and that undeniably helps build culture overall, it's also of clear benefit to me and many others. Why does this have to be a zero-sum game?
  • iamkroot 6y ago
    Yes, this very much so! Getting food provided for me at the office has more personal value than just the strict monetary benefit. Eating food that someone else bought for you just feels better than eating food you bought for yourself. Try this experiment: pick a friend that you eat out with a lot and set up a system where you each alternate picking up the whole bill. You'll each spend the same amount of money on aggregate, but I am confident each of you will feel better every time you go out.
• D2187645 6y ago
  Does free food mean the company isnt wfh nowadays. Id be willing to take a 100k pay cut compared to a in office job.