Great employers are always looking for ways to reinforce their company culture and help employees to be more productive. In recent years several leading companies have shown amazing examples of creative benefit solutions; from a snowboard company offering employees a ski pass stipend, to an online marketplace for vacation homes offering a personal travel stipend for employees.
Stipends are being used by all kinds of organizations today; in education, tech, law firms, banks, non-profits, and more. Not only are they a way to reinforce company culture but also a great way to keep remote employees motivated and happy!
Bonus: We’ve included a 30-day free trial for up to 100+ employees to use our Stipend Management Software Tool. Get started with Hoppier for free!
Here are 121 examples of stipends offered by leading organizations in 2020:
When the CEO of Molson Coors Brewing Co. noticed its beers were not on tap at all the pubs in Denver – the company’s founding HQ – the marketing team kicked off an internal program: Reclaim Colorado. Each employee was given a $35 monthly stipend to buy beer for others when they were out having drinks.
Popular dating app Hinge also historically has offered employees in its New York office a $200 monthly stipend to spend on dates. The company’s founder, Justin McLeod, said his favorite story of an employee using the benefit was a cat-themed date that one employee planned.
Facebook offers interns a $1,000/month stipend for employees working at their Menlo Park HQ. They also offer their employees health club membership of up to $720 annually, Child care for up to $3000 annually, relocation assistance, life insurance, disability income protection, health, dental, and vision insurance, among other benefits
Evernote offers its employees unlimited vacation days and a $1,000 yearly vacation stipend Vacation travel stipend by Evernote. They also offer their employees a stipend to have their houses cleaned twice per month.
Eventbrite helps keep employees healthy by offering a monthly $60 wellness stipend, which can be used on everything from gym dues to juice cleanses.
Quantopian gives employees $200 a month to spend on health and wellness needs, and covering their cell phone bills.
Goldman Sachs has offered coverage of $10,000 for the cost of adoption. They also offer a $20,000 stipend for a surrogate mother to carry their child as a means to build gender equality.
PWC offers its employees a $1,200 a year in reimbursement on student loan debt. PWC calculates that this program can help qualifying borrowers decrease their repayment time by as much as three years. This stipend is particularly interesting for the U.S. economy as the student loans debt in America has more than tripled from 2006 to 2018:
Starbucks has famously offered employees tuition reimbursement for its employees of $500- $1000 annually, covering education fees . Employees are also eligible for reimbursements for up to $4000 to help pay for qualified expenses related to the adoption of a child.
Machine learning startup Indico offers employees $5,000 to spend on career development perks like conferences and courses (online or in-person).
An annual $800 "StayFit" stipend program to help cover the cost of gym memberships and fitness programs. Microsoft also offers adoption assistance up to $10,000 per child, and covers some surrogacy-related expenses. Birth mothers are eligible for 20 weeks of paid leave; dads, adoptive parents, and foster parents are offered 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
Recharge offers employees $200 a month to spend on health and wellness and travel.
EY offers a great fitness reimbursement program that allows you to expense 75% of your fitness-relatedrelated expenses up to $1,000 per year.
Professionals know that personalization is key. That's one of the reasons Deloitte offers employees an annual well-being subsidy of $500, which can be used towards the purchase of gym memberships, meditation classes, yoga, and more.
Hoppier offers its employees an annual $5,000 learning budget for employees to ensure career advancements of our staff.
Udemy offers their employees free access to every course on the Udemy and Udemy for Business platforms and receive a yearly stipend that can be used for other professional development and training.
Fidelity Investments offers a generous student loan repayment program. “Pay down student loan debt faster and save on interest with Fidelity’s $2,000 annual contribution, up to $10,000, paid right to your student loan servicer,” says the Fidelity website. “Plus, get access to online tools to help you better manage your student loan debt.”The investment company also offers tuition reimbursement for work-related educational expenses.
Motley Fool gives its employees $100 monthly to choose whatever benefits of their choice. Additionally, for employees who want to participate in a race of any kind, Fool offers 50% reimbursements. And they give their new employees some money to invest in stocks.
Circle gives its Employees $200 for lunch every month. They give their employees the flexibility to choose from hundreds of food trucks restaurants in downtown Boston.
Investopedia offers their employees a $500/year fitness stipend to spend on staying healthy. Stipends for interns typically range from $250 to $500 or more per month, although the pay can vary by employer.
This company, and maker of ECOS® Laundry Detergents lives by their values and offers employees $1,000 who choose to move closer to the office to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing their commute.
Not only offers its employees 6 months of paid parental leave — They also offer $10,000 in an Egg Freezing stipend for employees. All Spotify employees are eligible to receive 6 months of paid parental leave. Once that period lapses, parents are given a month of flexible location benefits to ease the transition back. And that goes for mothers and fathers, depending on who’s shouldering the care-taking responsibilities.
Factor 5 Skin Care gives employees $75 a month to spend on continuous learning, food, health and wellness, productivity, and tech.
Rewind, a company in Ontario, Canada offers employees a $300/year allowance for health and fitness expenses and $5,000/year allowance for professional development.
An American company which operates an online marketplace for people to buy and sell pet care services including pet sitting, dog boarding, and more provides new employees with a $1,000 stipend to help adopt or foster a dog. And whenever you need to get away, we’ll help cover your dog’s staycation with a Rover sitter.
The online hospitality service Airbnb, famously gives its employees an annual $2,000 stipend ($500 per quarter) to travel anywhere in the world in an Airbnb listing.
Salesforce offers employees several stipends on top of their health and dental benefits, including; a $1200 annual wellness benefit (to use on massages or other physical therapy), $300 annual surplus wellness benefit, and $100 monthly wellness benefit to put towards gym memberships, classes, etc.
Walmart’s health reimbursement plans provide $300 to $1,000 and our health savings account plan gives up to a $700 match to help pay for eligible network or non-network medical expenses.
Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. offers college and university scholarships for tuition and fees to employees and their children, up to a maximum of $2,500 per year.
Lululemon offers it’s full-time employee $200 monthly stipends on fitness classes like yoga, CrossFit, and more.
TravelZoo is an online company that provides travel deals to its users around the world. Michael Stitt, President of Travelzoo North America, tells Glassdoor that employees are offered a $1,500 stipend and three extra PTO days if they book a hotel stay, vacation package, cruise or flight offer that was negotiated through the company on behalf of its users..
Snapchat is one of the companies with the highest-paid interns. They are known to pay their interns $10,000 monthly, plus an extra $1,500 for housing.
Trek, a leading company that makes bicycles. They reimburse 75% of the cost of approved GED, associate degree, college, or business-related courses, up to a maximum of $10,000 per calendar year, lifetime maximum of $25,000 among many other benefits.
New Belgium Brewing offers employees a $200 stipend each year to spend on gym memberships, races, or bike tune ups.
Clif Bar incentivizes cycling to the next level: It offers employees up to $765 a year in rewards for commuting by bike, $500 toward a bike every six years, and $350 annually to cover race entry fees. The CEO, Kevin Cleary bikes to work regularly and organizes impromptu rides with employees.
Employees at Sunpower Corporation in California can earn an extra $20 each month for commuting to work at least 3 times per week. Several of the company's executives are said to ride to work almost every day!
At Meredith Corporation in Iowa employees can earn up to $725 a year toward gym dues, $240 a year to cover bike commute costs, and $100 each for things like personal training and race entry fees.-
Christchurch advertising firm in New Zealand offers its employees Employees who cycle to and from work $5 a day and if they keep it up for more than half a year that amount will double to $10 a day, paid out as a bonus at the end of year.
Healthcare company Aetna offers full-time and part-time employees both tuition reimbursements and student loan repayment. Their student loan repayment program matches part-time employee student loan payments up to $1,000 per year with a lifetime maximum of $5,000. For full-time employees, Aetna matches student loan payments up to $2,000 per year with a lifetime maximum of $10,000.
The textbook rental company grants its employees $1,000 annually to repay their student loans. Caroline Gennaro, Corporate Communications Manager at Chegg tells Fast Company: "The benefit is in recognition of the burden that outstanding student loan debt puts on Chegg employees."
The publishing company offers $1,200 a year up to $9,000 through their student loan repayment benefit.
“We have always believed in doing our part to tackle broader societal challenges by starting within our own communities,” says Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle in a press statement. “With this new benefit for our employees, we have another opportunity to live up to our mission and help our employees invest in their futures while also making Penguin Random House a happy, productive, and rewarding place to work.”
Shopify gives every employee multiple free Shopify accounts and up to $300 per year to invest in their Shopify businesses. It is a great way for employees to experience their own product and build empathy for their customers. As a result 1,000’s of Shopify stores have been created by current and former employees.
Natural Partners Fullscript is a high-growth health-tech company offering its 300+ employees a wellness stipend to spend on health and wellness related products and services.
VMware is a global company with employees in over 40 countries offers a stipend of equivalent to $400 USD each year to spend on fitness.
Red Hat, the world's leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions was acquired by IBM for $34 billion in 2018. They have continued to offer amazing benefits to their employees including stipends for well-being through education and healthy life choices
Tableau’s Seattle employees receive a $275/month commuting stipend. Asides this, their employee stipends include medical coverage, dental coverage, equity, paid time off, transportation reimbursement, an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, flexible spending accounts, stocked kitchens, and retirement plans.
Kiva, an international nonprofit organization with a mission to support entrepreneurs and students with microloans in developing nations gives employees a $750 stipend for continuing education, conferences, and classes https://www.kiva.org/careers.
Charity Water is a nonprofit organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to communities in developing nations and offers its employees a comprehensive list of benefits including a flexible spending account to spend on wellness and an unlimited MetroCard to spend on public transportation.
Twitter recently announced to its employees that they can work from home permanently. They provide their staff with $1,000 worth of WFH supplies.
TED Conferences, a leading nonprofit organization lives by its cultural values of helping people who seek a deeper understanding of the world. TED offers an annual professional development stipend to inspire its employees.
DonorsChoose is a charity that makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need. They live by their mantra of helping others learn by offering their employees a stipend for professional growth. They also offer 5 weeks paid vacation, time off for new parents, snacks, gourmet coffee, and 100% paid health, dental, and vision coverage.
Gilead Sciences, a biotech and pharmaceutical company based in California offers its employees a wellness budget to help support their overall health and wellbeing. The company also offers a stipend of $5,250 each year to employees that would like to pursue undergraduate, graduate, or certificate courses at an accredited college or university.
TripAdvisor is a travel site where users can book flights, hotel stays, and vacation rentals. Employees of the company are offered travel reimbursements of $250 or more depending on how long they have been with the company. Workers are also offered discounts on packages that are booked through the site.
Vice Media offers its employees in 35 cities around the world a tuition and gym stipend to spend on learning and wellness.
Patagonia is an incredible company known for its high-quality outerwear, lifetime warranties, and involvement in environmental sustainability. The company offers its employees a number of benefits including a childcare stipend ranging from $50 to $250 per month.
REI, a cooperative company that sells outerwear and more gives employees a number of stipends. The company offers adoptive parents a stipend of $3,000 to apply toward eligible adoption costs. The company also offers employees an opportunity to set a personal outdoor challenge and apply for a special grant to achieve their goals. In the past, employees have received funds for a variety of challenges, from a 50-mile bike ride to a Mt. Everest expedition.
Slack offers employees an annual allowance for professional development of $2,000 and a personal development stipend of $500, plus a monthly stipend of $150 towards fitness, a $50 stipend each month for phone bill, and a $100/month stipend for commuting.
Zoom offers its employees a number of different stipends; from a fitness stipend to a book stipend, and even an electric vehicle charging stipend.
Reddit employees can take advantage of the company's Evolve Benefits, which focus on self-improvement, professional development, and wellness. Employees can use the funds to take classes related to their job, as well as learn skills that include cooking, surfboard shaping, and learning a language. They can also spend the money to cover wellness costs such as a nutritionist, massages, gym memberships and/or fitness trackers, and even mattresses and blackout curtains.
Adobe offers employees a wellness reimbursement program, adoption, and surrogacy assistance up to $25,000, fertility support, and education and professional development reimbursement.
Lime, the mobility company that is reinventing multimodal transportation and helping people get where they need to go quicker, easier, and more affordable than ever before offers eligible employees an unlimited stipend on free rides.
Lyft offers eligible employees a stipend of $75 towards Lyft rides each month as well as a $200 public transportation stipend each month.
Superhuman reportedly gives its employees a generous stipend for desk setup. They also offer their employees with medical, dental, vision, flexible vacation, free lunch, and stocked kitchen/fridge.
LinkedIn offers its U.S. and Canadian employees a $5,000 stipend, per year, to spend on education related to their job. They also offer fully inclusive benefits including a $1,800 wellness allowance.
MeetEdgar, the social media scheduling platform offers Internet, coworking, yearly conferences (conference tickets, travel expenses, and lodging), and house cleaning. Their remote employees get $100 for Internet access and $300 to cover the cost of a coworking space.
Automattic, the creators of Wordpress.com are the largest fully remote company by headcount in the world (or at least until the global pandemic), employing over 1,000 people. Employees get home office setup and coworking allowances of $250/month to help, as well as books or conferences that promote continued learning.
Even before the global pandemic, the CEO of Timeshare CMO has had a policy in place so that all employees receive a monthly "home office stipend" to cover phone, internet, electricity expenses, and more.
The University of Southern California (USC) located in Los Angeles has created a COVID-19 Technology Work From Home Stipend. The stipend is $53 per month for employees who are working from home. According to their website “It is to cover a reasonable percentage of the cell phone, internet expenses and other technology expenses that may be generated by working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Bank of America is offering its branch workers several stipends in order to ease the burden of the global pandemic. On top of an additional $200 per pay period (around 2 weeks) the bank is offering transportation for people who need to come to work, so they don’t need to take mass transit and for anyone who needs child care, the bank is supplying $100 a day.
Pine Tree ISD, a public school district based in Longview, Texas, is offering teachers and some paraprofessionals a one-time $250 stipend for using their personal internet and phone services during the COVID-19 closure.
Dinwiddie County Public Schools, a public school board in Virginia, recently approved a $100 stipend for employees working from home.
Lambda School, a leading education tech company that offers online coding bootcamps that cost a fraction of traditional higher education or can be paid later through an income sharing program offers several stipends, including $100/month for fitness, $100/month for home cleaning, $500/yer for education, and a generous coffee shop stipend.
Cornell University offers endowed employees competitive stipends for their Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowships. The stipend for appointments in the 2018-2019 academic year were $68,000 plus full Cornell University endowed employee fringe benefits. Each Fellow also received $5,000 annually for discretionary research expenses including travel.
Pinterest offers its employees diverse benefits including egg freezing and other family building benefits, workshops for learning new skills, and career development. They also offer their Interns $3,000 Housing Stipends monthly and $5000 for adoption assistance.
Cisco develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology services and products. They offer their employees a $300 work-from-home stipend.
Although HashiCorp is headquartered in San Francisco, the company believes in a remote-first, distributed workforce and offers employees a WFH stipend.
At Wooga each employee gets a €2,000/year Educational budget. The company also recently began offering employees a stipend for WFH.
Aira, a company that creates software for the visually impaired, offers employees a competitive WFH budget to spend on having a comfortable working environment.
Change.org, a social change platform, empowering more than 200 million people to create change in their communities offers employees a WFH stipend.
Klaviyo, a leader in email marketing gave every employee a very generous budget of $1,000 to ensure employees have everything they need to work remotely.
The Honest Company, founded by Jessica Alba in 2011 offers employees monthly fitness reimbursement and onsite fitness classes, options for education reimbursement, and a discount on all products. They also offer a generous and flexible vacation policy.
Basecamp, a company that has been remote-first for over 20 years and employs 50+ people around the world offers several benefits including a $100/month coworking space stipend, a $100/month fitness allowance, $1,000/year for continuous learning, and a $1,000/year matching charitable gifts stipend.
Webflow offers substantial benefits to their employees; $380/month for remote workers, a $200/month health & wellness stipend, $1,000/year for continuous learning, a $380/year commuter stipend, and $100 in Lyft credits.
Buffer, a fully-remote company started in 2010 with over 100 employees across 15 countries, gives employees multiple stipends; $200/month for "Working Smarter", $500 for home office setup, $200/year for tech/office needs, an Internet reimbursement stipend, and a $850/year continuous learning stipend.
Amgen, an American multinational biopharmaceutical company that makes drugs for cancer and heart disease, is giving employees $250 stipends for the equipment they need to work from home and a $50-a-month allowance for internet and phone services.
Since early 2019, TourRadar has been giving employees annual travel stipends of up to $1,800 to go on vacation, allowing them to save their paychecks while taking one of the 40,000 different adventures offered on TourRadar around the world.
Afar Media, a publication for travel gives employees that have been at the company for at least 6 months up to $2,000 a year for their domestic or international trips.
To fight burnout, BambooHR offers employees a $2,000/year employee travel budget to help cover the cost of plane tickets, hotel rooms, and vacation activities.
Contact management software maker FullContact offers likely one of the largest stipends out there. Every year, employees get $7,500 that can be spent on… anything. According to the CEO, the only requirement is that employees must totally disconnect.
Employees of Tesla can purchase company stock at a 15% discount off the market price.
Amazon pays 95 percent of tuition, textbook, and associated fees, up to $12,000, for four years for employees that are apart of their Amazon Career Choice Program studying to learn new skills and build their career in an eligible field of work.
For relocation or temporary work assignments, Intel offers employees a stipend for housing assistance. The company also has a child adoption assistance program that covers up to $15,000 per adoption, with no limit on the number of adoptions.
Dell gives US employees an annual family fitness stipend of $300 that can be applied to cover membership fees or other health and wellness related activities
IBM has a commuter benefits program offering US employees up to a monthly stipend amount of $270 for transit and $270 for parking. Since 2017, IBM pays 100% of eligible expenses related to the adoption of a minor child/children or the attempts to have a child/children through surrogacy, up to a lifetime maximum of $20,000 per family. Eligible expenses include everything from application fees, legal fees, medical expenses, and temporary foster care charges.
Zillow cares about employees and shows it. They offer eligible employees $25 per month toward their student loan balance and a stipend of $1,000 "Baby Bucks" for new parents, including foster parents.
G Adventures, a Toronto-based travel tour company gives employees a flight stipend of $570 each year to travel and experience their own travel tours and unwind.
Moz builds software for SEO. The company employs over 200 people and was founded by a mother/son team. The company offers employees a number of benefits including a $3,000 annual vacation stipend that can be spent while on holiday.
Godfrey & Kahn is a law firm based in Wisconsin that has offered a fellowship for first-year law students to receive a $2,500 scholarship. Many of these students have gone on to work for the law firm.
Yesware is a company based in Boston Massachusetts that has been voted a top workplace by LinkedIn for several years. The company offers employees a $130 per month stipend for commuting reimbursement, as well as pre-tax benefits for any additional commuter spending.
SpaceX offers interns a housing stipend and relocation budget for employees that move to Hawthorne from out of state. They offer a health and wellness stipend by covering Health and Dental Insurance.
Wattpad, a global multi-platform entertainment company based in Toronto, Canada, has an incredibly diverse team of people that also receive a diverse range of benefits. Employees also receive a $500 stipend towards things the healthcare plan does not cover.
Wyzant, the private tutor service offers their employees $2,000 per year in learning stipends, explains Andrew Geant, Co-Founder of Wyzant.
On their hiring page, Slack explains that employees receive $500 annually towards a personal development opportunity of their choice and $2,000 annually for professional development. That’s a significant monetary investment in employee learning and development.
The Help Scout has a "Learn Something Stipend" where each employee is given $1,800 to spend annually on learning. Amongst other things, they help fund home offices, co-working space fees, personal development, and more.
Olark has a professional development budget of $2,000/year to use in classes, books, software, conferences, etc. They offer a monthly Internet and Coworking Space Stipend, paid vacation, medical, dental, and vision benefits.
Balsamiq, which was founded in 2008, and has been creating software and websites, gives their employees $3,000/year to spend on books, classes, or travel, accommodation, and fees for attending conferences.
Smartsheet provides its employees $1,000/year to spend on learning-related items. They offer $200 reimbursement on transportation, free audible subscription, free online anonymous counseling, and telehealth consultations.
"When our employees move here to Berlin, they find a place where English is widely spoken at a casual level. Indeed, German is not a compulsory requirement to join our team. But to truly understand our city’s identity, culture and the way it operates, it’s great to start learning the language. We want our employees to properly integrate here, so German class is something we will always pay for." says Marvin Amberg, CEO at Caseable.
"We bring speakers and educators into the studio to host workshops and classes for the entire team. We’ve always found it to be a great investment. Beyond that, we offer a no-questions-asked $400 annual educational stipend to cover events, books, etc. that a team member finds inspiring. We also cover a majority of education expenses if the curriculum is in-line with their career here at The Engine." says Chris Denny, Co-Founder at The Engine is Red.
"Investing in your employees to build their hard skills helps your short-term goals as well as their long-term career path. It’s always a good bet to invest in your employees. The reciprocity will have exponential benefits. Offer 50 percent of the course cost upfront and 50 percent if they ace the course. That way, you know it's something they are passionate about and have skin in the game." Tim Ray, CEO at Carnivore Club.
The Keto Company gives their employees competitive salaries, unlimited time off, free products, flexible working hours, parental leave, team retreats, comprehensive health plans, 4 books/month, $150/month for healthy food, $250/month for fitness, and $100 for learning.
KettleandFire provides lots of benefits to their employees including monthly stipend towards books, courses, 1-on-1 consulting, mindshares, bi-annual retreats, health, dental and vision insurance among many others.
Audible offers a wide range of reimbursements that vary based on location. They offer free parking or a transit subsidy towards your actual incurred work commute expenses, gym reimbursements, health, dental and vision insurance among others.
Duolingo, the software for learning new languages, ensures that its employees get proper benefits. They offer daily lunch, annual retreat for workers, first-home buyer bonus, transportation stipends, and yearly career development stipends.
Chefhero, the Food Service company founded in 2015, is not left behind in the list of companies with impressive benefits. They give their employees opportunities for career development, free lunch, physical and mental support, (at least) 3 weeks paid vacation, paid pregnancy, and parental leave.
Ada, the customer services company, encourages their employees to expand both their professional skills and networks by providing them with financial support to take classes, attend conferences, obtain certifications, and more.
Robinhood, the company on a mission to democratize finance, offers commuter, health, wellness, and vacation stipends to its employees. They also provide premium dental, vision and medical benefits.
CreditKarma’s employees enjoy a wide range of benefits, categorized into happiness, health, wealth and growth. They offer mentorship programs, on-site café with baristas, gym subsidies, and equity incentives.
The company is a champion in the green, sustainable world, and thus strives to create an office community that mimics that. Employees who choose to move closer to the office to reduce their carbon footprint receive a $1,000 commute stipend.
Expedia is a travel booking site that offers its employees a travel reimbursement of $250-$750 depending on how long a person has been with the company. Expedia also provides employees with discounts on retail and travel packages that are purchased on the site.
The Airline company United Airlines offers vacation, health, financial, social and professional benefits. They offer their employees unlimited standby travel and discounted rates on airline tickets to anywhere United flies, among other benefits.
As you can see, there’s a growing number of great companies offering creative stipends to motivate and reward employees. These stipends have become a great way for culture builders, HR professionals, CEO’s, and other managers to reinforce their company culture!
Don’t see your company but it offers employees a creative stipend? Send us an email and we’ll add it to the list!
Bonus: If you’re looking for an easy way to manage stipends for your own team, you can get started with Hoppier for free.
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
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