1. Running Head: COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS PACKAGES 1
Compensation and Benefits Packages Customer’s Name: Name of Instructor: Course/ Grade:

2. COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS PACKAGES 2
According to Armstrong & Cummins (2011), compensation and benefits refers to those indirect favors granted to the employees by the employers. This is mainly to offer a favorable environment for a given company in the competitive job market. Different companies have different ways of ensuring that the welfare of their employees in regard to compensation and benefits are met. Just like companies, these compensation and benefits packages vary in different countries. For example, the health insurance policies, pension and salaries in United States greatly differs from that of Canada and Japan.

3. Running Head: COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS PACKAGES 3
In regard to pension plans, both US, Canada and Japan differs in the sense that in the United States, the social security covers both the Medicaid and Medicare as opposed to Canada Pension Plans(CPP) and Japanese National Pension Insurance. In Canada, the age at which one starts to get taxed is 18 years and ends when one get to 65 years. This differs from that of Japan which begins at 20 years and ends at 59 years. In the United States, one only start to get taxed when he or her begins to earn income regardless of the age and ends when one gets to 62 (Rhodes, 2004). As opposed to US and Canada, in Japan each and everybody is expected to pay a definite amount of money which is announced in the Japanese pension service website

4. Running Head: COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS PACKAGES 4
every year between March and April. The latest amount payable by the Japanese stands at 15,590 yen. In US, when one’s retirement age clocks, his or her retirement benefits is calculated by considering the individual highest earning 35 years in his or her work history. This therefore implies that those who had higher incomes during their periods of work are entitled to higher retirement benefits. Contrary to social security, CPP is determined by considering the highest earning 40 years of an individual work history. Just like social security, those who used to earn higher income during their active working years benefit greatly.

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The Canadian Pension Plan is better than the social security of the united states since the wage taxes are managed by the CPP Investment Board which is entitled with investing the money in various assets such as stocks and bonds. In the United States, the social security trust funds are lent to the government. The wage tax is therefore not invested and instead used in the national budget. It therefore means that the government would have to tax or borrow money to pay the social security funds. This is risky since any shortfall in the national budget can lead to the dissolution of the social security. In comparison with the social security and CPP, Japanese National Pension Insurance is

6. COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS PACKAGES 6
better in the sense that each and every member gets same proportion of money as the retirement benefit. Lastly the United States Social Security is better than the other two since one only starts to pay when he or she starts to get an income. The health insurance benefits in the three countries in question vary in the percentage of contribution whereby in the United States, an individual contributes 25% of the total cost of medication while the government contributes the remaining 75%. In Japan, the government contributes the 70% while an individual covers the remaining 30%. In Canada, the contribution of an individual is maximized at 25%. As opposed to both

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Canada and United States, the government of Japan does not insure maternity and childbirth. The United States offers the best health insurance benefits via the Medicare which helps in pulling resources towards ensuring that each and every citizen gets a proper medical care. Besides, the Medicaid helps those who are unable to afford the cost of treatment (Rosenbloom, 2011). Both United States, Japan and Canada allow their employees to have a paid vocation and both obey and pay their workers on national holidays. However, in Japan, the employees are not paid when they are in sick leave or maternity or nursing leave.

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This differs with the United States which pays their worker when they are in a sick leave unless the sickness is severe and would take more than 4 hours. In Canada, every employee is entitled to at least two weeks of vacation with a pay if and only if he or her has completed one year in service with exception of Saskatchewan where employees are entitled to a three week vocation on completion of one year. In the United States, the employees are supposed to have utmost 30 days vocation with a pay. In Japan, the maximum number of days the employees are allowed to have vocation with a pay is 20.

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References Armstrong, M., & Cummins, A. (2011). The reward management toolkit. London: Kogan Page. Rosenbloom, J. (2011). The handbook of employee benefits. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rhodes, L. (2004). Total confinement. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.