The benefits of working at Google continue after death

As if free Nexus devices weren’t reason enough for you to immediately apply for a job at Google, the Mountain View team has now revealed a somewhat more macabre part of its employee benefits: how it takes care of your loved ones after you die. The first and most significant contribution Google makes is to keep paying 50 percent of employees’ salaries for a decade after their death. If they had any dependent children, Google will support them with $1,000 per month until they reach the age of 19 (that age limit is raised to 23 if they’re in full-time education).

On the surface, it all sounds like an extremely magnanimous package of perks, and Laszlo Bock, Google’s Senior VP for People Operations, wouldn’t want you to think any different. His belief is that “when it comes down to it, it’s better to work for a company who cares about you than a company who doesn’t. And from a company standpoint, that makes it better to care than not to care.” Then again, Google’s hardly the first big corporation to offer life insurance as part of its employees’ remuneration and Bock is a bit fanciful when he says “obviously there’s no benefit to Google.” Being generous to current workers makes them feel more appreciated and that munificence tends to feed the company’s already strong reputation as a great place to work.