The Roche Palo Alto employee benefit program is a comprehensive program designed to meet competitive needs and, most importantly, the needs of employees and their families with respect to health care, death, disability, retirement, and an opportunity for rest and relaxation away from the job. These five areas of need represent the core components of our employee benefit program.
Health Benefits
- Medical Coverage – We offer coverage that protects both you and your family for the cost of routine expenses as well as for the cost of unforeseen major medical problems. To meet the needs of our diverse workforce, we offer three health plan options, all of which provide the employee, their spouse or domestic partner, and their children with access to high-quality healthcare including hospital, surgery, inpatient/outpatient care, preventive care and coverage for prescription drugs and vision correction.
- Dental Coverage – Dental coverage is provided to all employees and their family members enrolled in the health care plan.
Death Benefits
We offer a highly competitive level of life insurance coverage of two times annual base salary. This amount is double in the event of death as a result of an accident. Employees may purchase additional amounts of life insurance coverage for both themselves and their spouse.
Disability
Our benefit plan provides protection for absences due to illness and injury if an employee is unable to do their job for medical reasons.
- The Sickness and Accident Pay Plan provides for continuation of salary for periods of absence of less than six months. A highlight of this program is that employees are able to use a portion of the benefit if they need to be take care of an ill family member.
- Long Term Disability (LTD) provides income continuation if you incur a disability which extends beyond a six month period. In addition to income continuation, the LTD program provides for continued participation in the health care program and coverage under the life insurance program.
Retirement
Roche Palo Alto provides two retirement plans: a 401(k) savings plan, funded by both employee and company contributions, and a pension plan funded entirely by the company.
- Employee Retirement Savings Plan (ERSP) – A tax-qualified 401(k) savings plan provides employees with the opportunity to contribute a percentage of their pay (up to annual IRS annual limits) to a qualified retirement savings plan that accumulates tax free during their working years. After one year of service, the company provides matching contributions to a maximum of five percent of pay.
- Retirement Plan – There is no cost to employees to participate in this plan. Roche makes annual contributions to each employees retirement account, and the employee decides how to invest these funds by choosing from an array of available investment options. There is no waiting period for this plan.
Rest and Relaxation
Vacation: We offer a generous paid time off schedule. During the first year of employment, employees enjoy 12 days of vacation. After one year, all employees are eligible for a minimum of 17 days of vacation, increasing ultimately to 22 days per year after 10 years of service.
Holidays: We provide 12 paid holidays during the year, which includes a paid year-end shutdown between December 25 and January 1.
In addition to the benefits described above, Roche Palo Alto offers two flexible spending accounts: one for dependent day care and one for healthcare.
- Dependent Day Care Flexible Spending Account – Allows you to defer up to $5,000/year to cover care expenses for children under the age of 13.
- Healthcare Flexible Spending Account – Allows you to tax-effectively cover medical and dental expenses not covered by insurance, such as deductibles and specific services not covered under your health care plan option.
