I am wanting to offer Education Reimbursement to a specific candiate in order to match what they are currenty receiving from the company they are levaing. I cannot afford to offer such benefit to other employees at this time. Is it legal to offer this type of benefit to one employee but not others?

Thanks, Ryan

Yes, it is legal for one employee to negotiate a benefit that is not available to all employees. I would make sure that you specify in writing precisely what you will and will not pay for and under what circumstances, including any paybacks you may require, and make it clear in the offer letter that this is a negotiated benefit not available under most circumstances.

Thanks for the quick response! Can you point me to some website or other resource where I can read up this and related matters. I found the dol.gov website but am unsure where to start. I guess what I want to know is "How could I have found this answer myself without having to ask on this forum?" Is there some legislation that discusses the freedom an employer has when offering benefits to employees?

What it boils down to is, benefits cannot be based on a characteristic protected by law (race, religion, national origin, etc.).

For ERISA-based benefits (health insurance is an example) you can set up eligible classes of employees (ex. full time but not part time; office but not shop; corporate but not field offices; managers and up but not below, etc.) but having done so, all employees in the eligible class or classes must be offered the benefit.

In this case you are not offering an ERISA-based benefit (it could be, but in this case is not) so you can offer it to anyone you like as long as you are not basing it on a protected characteristic, which you are not.

Thanks so much for the information! That really clears things up.