[rm999]

Agreed. My theory is that people irrationally value free stuff. I spend about 3,000 dollars a year on work-time food (250 work days * 12 dollars for lunch/an afternoon snack). The way people talk about free food at some tech companies you'd think it's worth way more than a few percent of a typical developer's post-tax income.

[rdl]

Food onsite is a special case. It's tax-advantaged for the employer (if offering meals onsite is "for the convenience of the employer, and for a business purpose"), and food has a high search/storage/etc. cost. Similarly, I'd value a 30" monitor at about $1k/yr salary.

[rm999]

> Food onsite is a special case. It's tax-advantaged for the employer (if offering meals onsite is "for the convenience of the employer, and for a business purpose"),

Interesting, I read somewhere that Google pays taxes on their free food. How do they argue the free food is for their convenience when their employees can just go out and purchase food and eat at their desk? Especially non-essential foods like snacks, smoothies, etc? Either way, I still think people overvalue free food.

>Similarly, I'd value a 30" monitor at about $1k/yr salary.

Why? Buy a 30 inch monitor for 1200 dollars with your own money, write it off on your taxes, and you've spent less than 1000 dollars of income on a one-time payment. And now you own a 30 inch monitor!

[dorkitude]

One thing worth noting: You have to hit the so-called minimum deduction (9K last I checked) to benefit from this sort of write off, whereas a company can do it regardless of absolute annual business expenditure.

[tedunangst]

The lunches I used to get were usually worth more than $12 (though the company paid quite a bit more than that). But there's more to it than money. There's not having to decide, which is something you can't buy as an individual. There are other cultural benefits, which I'd argue both the company and individual benefit from.