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MetLife: Global Employee benefits trends
This article talks about the financial crisis of 2008-2009 along with globalization that has put a spotlight on the complexity of employee benefits. The current economic environment is forcing the private sector globally to analyze the cost and scope of the benefits it has provided to workers. There can also be large regional differences in what companies can expect to offer without jeopardizing their business goals/ profitability. This report also provides insight into the financial concerns, needs, habits and expectations of employees in each of these five countries. In this article they studied the trends of Australia, India, Mexico, The United Kingdom and Brazil. It is using these five countries a representative sample of different economic and workplace environments.
The markets have been divided into two categories: Australia and The United Kingdom are mature, industrialized markets. Brazil, India, and Mexico are high-growth emerging markets, similar to Russia and China. In the two mature markets of Australia and The United Kingdom pension plans are very different. For example, Australia has a pension plan dictated by the government, which requires contributions both from employers and employees. In the U.K., private companies provided pension plans with little to nothing government contribution compared to the other developed countries. In these un-and-coming three countries there is a high level of financial anxiety due to the crisis of 2008-2009, accompanied by the lack of preparation to meet long term fiscal health issues. These three countries combined total population amounting to 1.5 billion, makes them a big concern for the global economy.
In a chart in the article, high-growth markets main financial concerns and work/life goals of employees are having enough money to pay bills, while the United Kingdom main

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