Beyond fixed cash salaries, several Chinese companies offer allowance quotas available to middle- and senior-level executives, which permit income deductions for housing, food and transportation costs.
Suppliers offer vendor allowances because they want the business.
The government did not offer such allowances, argued Amref, so the system was unsustainable.
And the government, as the latest budget reveals, would even be happy to offer tax allowances to such micro-entrepreneurs!
The government, more sensibly arguing that the mothers of young children should have a real choice of whether to work or not, will now offer them allowances during maternity leave, to help them stay at home.
Eighty percent of the 200 companies surveyed late last year by William Mercer, a benefits consulting firm based in New York, said it was important to offer special allowances, particularly "hardship grants" for people working in parts of the world deemed difficult.
But, warned Versace, who is completing five years in Singapore, "Packages that offer housing allowances are becoming few and far between.
Many European countries offer pregnancy allowances, attending prenatal care during paid working hours, protection from job loss during pregnancy and the guarantee of a safe work environment (e.g. chemical free, no heavy lifting) and indeed, among eight European countries, the proportion of women who had less than three prenatal visits ranged from 0.4%to6%6% [ 14].
Some businesses will offer mileage allowances, and other types of agreements if you're given a company car.
Meanwhile, the city offers hefty allowances for diapers -- as long as they are cotton, to promote a cleaner environment.
