On April 2, 2019, Google announced a minimum standard for wages and benefits for members of our provisioned (with systems and/or badge access) extended workforce (temps and vendors) in the United States. In order to be a supplier of Google’s extended workforce, this standard must be met and maintained. Suppliers were required to comply with the wage standard by January 1, 2020 and the benefits standard by January 1, 2022, at the latest.
All members of Google’s provisioned extended workforce, working in the United States, should be paid $15/hour or more.
In locations where the minimum wage is more than $15/hour, we will expect that you comply with that higher requirement.
Compliance Date: January 1, 2020
To comply, Google suppliers must provide the minimum wages and benefits outlined in Google’s Wages and Benefits Standards to their employees who meet the following criteria:
Alphabet Companies | These standards apply to Google’s U.S. based provisioned (with system and/or badge access) temps and vendors. These standards will be extended to Alphabet temps and vendors |
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Country | United States |
Access | Provisioned with system and/or badge access to a Google operated building, excluding temporary badges |
Employment Status |
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Exclusions | Employment Status
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While the wages portion of this policy must be followed without adjustment, Google’s suppliers may include eligibility requirements to receive the benefits portion of this policy. However, those eligibility requirements should not exceed:
Waiting period | 90 consecutive days on assignment at Google |
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Service requirement |
30 hours/week (average) on assignment at Google. Both "hours of service" and how such hours are averaged is to be determined according to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) definitions. All benefits listed should be available as soon as individuals meet eligibility requirements. |
Employers of our extended workforce are required to offer a healthcare plan that includes, at a minimum, the following essential health benefits.
- Required essential health benefits (each as defined under the ACA) include:
- Laboratory services
- Emergency services
- Prescription drugs
- Mental health and substance use disorder services
- Maternity and newborn care
- Pediatric services, including oral and vision care
- Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
- Ambulatory patient services
- Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
- Hospitalization
- The healthcare plan offered must be valued at the ACA’s Gold level or above, which generally means that the plan must provide a level of coverage that is designed to provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 80% of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the plan:
- 80% – Plan paid (employer contribution + employee payroll deduction)
- 20% – Employee out-of-pocket expenses
Cost to employees
The payroll deduction for:
- Employee-only coverage cannot exceed the federal poverty level safe harbor provision in the ACA to determine healthcare plan affordability. This rate changes annually and is adjusted by inflation.
- Dependent coverage cannot exceed 50% of the cost for that coverage.
Employer requirement
Employers may not take a pay or play penalty as allowed by the ACA in order to avoid providing a healthcare plan meeting these requirements.
Eight fully paid sick days per year
- Flexible paid time off (PTO) can go towards meeting the requirement
- In locations where the state/local law minimum paid sick days is more than eight days per year, we will require that you meet that higher requirement
- All eight paid sick leaves must be available once they meet all eligibility requirements
12 weeks fully paid parental leave
Parental leave is inclusive of:
- Adoption leave
- Baby bonding
Short-term disability leave for birth moms will be on top of the 12 weeks.
$5,000 tax free tuition reimbursement per year
- Reimbursement should be used for career-related learning. Personal learning or hobbies should be excluded. If a supplier has internal learning management systems (e.g., skillbuilder) employees can use it to satisfy the requirement.
- If career-related learning is not available through internal resources, employees may leverage external resources that map back to a specific skill and have a guided curriculum by an instructor.
Six support sessions per year to include
- Remote/off-site services:
- 24-hour crisis telephone response
- Confidential assessment and counseling services
- Referral support, tracking, and follow-up
- Intervention/critical incident stress management
- On-site assistance will be provided in a timely fashion for emergencies, including critical incident stress or management (CISM) defusing and debriefing, and other crisis response needs management and employees, including:
- Substance abuse expertise
- Access to qualified EA clinical providers
- Dependent and domestic partner coverage
- Guaranteed confidential recordkeeping
FAQs
General Policy/Program
If you determine that your company is excluded from compliance, please reach out to xws@google.com with the reason for the exclusion. We will record your status and audit your company at a later date to certify your excluded status.