Technology, finance and manufacturing employees have the best benefits in the U.S., according to a survey by Glassdoor. On the flip side, the food services and retail industries provide the worst benefits.
Employer ratings website Glassdoor analyzed about 470,000 anonymous reviews left between June 2014 and September 2015. It focused on eight industries: business services, education, finance, health services, information technology, manufacturing, food services and retail.
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Many technology and finance companies have been upping their benefits games in recent years to attract top-quality employees, Glassdoor said. In the manufacturing industry, on the other hand, unions representing highly skilled tradespeople often bargain for good benefits packages.
The food services and retail industries are the least likely to offer benefits, and even when they do, employees rate them worse than those in other industries.
In terms of parental leave provision, the finance, IT and education industries lead the pack, while health care, retail and business services have the lowest average ratings for that benefit.
Glassdoor also found access to 401(k) plans doesn’t differ much across industries, though finance, education and manufacturing are rated most highly.
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“This comes as little surprise,” Glassdoor wrote. “Education and manufacturing are highly unionized industries with famously high-quality retirement benefit packages and the finance industry has significant expertise on 401(k) plan provisions… By contrast, none of the other industries had 401(k) benefits ratings that were statistically different from each other.”
Glassdoor also examined free food and snacks, common in both the technology and food industries.
“Although restaurant jobs offer relatively low-rated benefits overall, free food and snacks are a bright spot, with employees rating them better than the snacks offered in higher-paying fields like finance, health care and education,” wrote Glassdoor.
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Interestingly, while the finance industry doesn’t offer many snacks benefits, employees are still highly satisfied with the food benefits available. Employers in education and retail offer the least free food.