All You Need to Know About Expat Package
Regardless of whether you are the employer or the assignee, you must consider the following points in designing an attractive expat package. For employers, you must remember that not all employees are happy to take up an overseas assignment especially when they have a family to consider and / or a phobia of living and working in an unknown culture.
First, the employees’ basic salary needed to be adjusted based on the increased responsibility and the cost of living of the host country. It is advisable to have a separate component for the increase due to the cost of living of the host country as it will be easier to remove the component once the expat return to the home country after the assignment. An employee living and working in a big city is likely to have a higher cost of living, thus need to spend more money than an employee living and working in a smaller city. In addition, some cities are known to be more expensive than others.
Second, the package include a moving allowance to help the expatriate and family move their possession to the host country. This usually is in the form of the amount of space given for the expatriate and family to pack their possession in (space allocated is in terms of cubic feet or cubic metres or container boxes).
Third, the air tickets for the expatriate and family to move to the host country (1st trip only). This is usually business class or first class depending on the position of the expatriate and the company’s policy.
Fourth, the company needs to provide housing for the expatriate and family. An expatriate with family will need a bigger house than one without family. This is usually in the form of a house leased and fully paid for by the company or a monetary housing allowance where the expatriate handle all the rental issues (this is not common, but not unheard of). Both employers and employees need to keep in mind the housing situation of the place of assignment. Big cities usually have limited space allocated for housing, therefore it is not possible to get a very big house as compared to a smaller city or even sub-urban area where houses are usually bigger.
Fifth, some expat package includes the payment of utility bills in the expatriate home in the host country.
Sixth, usually senior expatriate is given a company car (i.e. the company lease a car for the expatriate to drive). Some expatriate get the monetary car allowance and they will have to manage their travel expenses.
Seventh, companies usually paid their expatriate’s children school fee if the children also move overseas with the expatriate. This is important for the expatriate as school fee in international school is not cheap.
Lastly, companies usually include home leave in the package. It is an annual air ticket provided for the expatriate and family to return to their home country once a year to visit their family still living in the home country.
Get more information about expatriate compensation and Guide to Becoming an Expat.
Processing your request, Please wait....
