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Fix the wedding date, your employer is paying for it

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CIOL Writers
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CIOL Wedding funded by employer

It is appraisal time and you are expecting a plump raise. What if your employer offers you to bear the expenses for your wedding instead? If you are getting married, that is. Well, don’t be surprised, because shopping startup Boxed Wholesale is seeking to do just that.

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The company, which raised $100 million in funding in January, says it will pay up to $20,000 for any full-time employee’s wedding. And you thought innovation in start-ups has dried up! Chieh Huang, the Chief Executive Officer of Boxed Wholesale says that he had thought about a blanket raise in employee salaries, but rather settled for this strange perk, because “benefits like paying for a wedding are actually better”. Huang claims that some employees are excited and have already taken him up on his offer. He expects about 10 percent of his workforce to avail it in due course.

The idea here is to infuse a sense of camaraderie and loyalty between the management and its employees. Huang says that such efforts will help the company create a “culture” and that it would eventually be a “money-saver over time.” Well, if you look at it, this proposition is actually a very good one, if you plan to get married in near future, since your financial burden will be well taken care of.

Wouldn’t you just wish your guests just gave you some cash instead of gifts you would never use? But if a wedding is nowhere in your plans, fret not. In a statement, a Boxed spokesperson said that the company is not actually overpassing salary raise by introducing this fringe benefit. The employees will still be eligible for a salary hike during the quarterly compensation reviews.

The company really cares for its employees, wouldn’t you think? And this isn’t the first time that Huang has used unorthodox methods to make his employees happy. A case in point will be his announcement last year that he will donate $1 million in cash and shares, from his personal kitty, to pay for the tuition cost for children of Boxed employees. That was when the company had about 100 odd employees. The number has now grown to 122 full-time workers.