Best Employee Benefits Ever: Nustar Energy?
I just read an article on CNN that highlighted 8 companies that are great to retire from. One stood out to me, Nustar Energy. Their commitment to their employees was so generous, I had to share.
Nustar: An Amazing Pension Plan
Beyond any other benefit, I love the fact that Nustar, which started in 2001, has bucked the corporate trend of moving away from pensions and offers their employees a very generous defined benefit pension plan. If you don’t know what this is or why it’s so awesome, check out my rant on the unfortunate decline of pensions.
According to Nustar’s site, their Pension Plan provides a benefit equal to 1.6% x Final Average Pay x Years of Credited Service. It’s important to note that the final average pay, which is defined as the highest three consecutive calendar years, includes base pay, overtime and bonus. Additionally, NuStar’s pension gives retirees their full salary for one-and-a-half times their years of service: work 20 years and get 30 years’ worth of your full pay.
This is amazing!! You would be crazy to leave their company.
More Nustar Benefits: But That’s Not All!
Additionally, Nustar offers the following:
- Annual bonuses to all employees.
- A thrift plan (401k): NuStar has a 401K match of $1 for every $1 contributed by the employee up to 6% of pay.
- Educational reimbursement program to support employees’ efforts to further their education. The program pays 80% of tuition, fees and books for full-time employees who are pursuing continuing education or undergraduate or graduate degrees.
- Fitness plans, etc., etc., etc.
Oh, did I mention that they have never had layoffs?
You can check out their entire employee handbook.
I applaud Nustar for their commitment to keeping their employees happy. This is a company who gets that attracting and keeping high level talent keeps everyone happy. Way to go guys.
Nustar Benefit Discussion:
- Does your employer offer a pension?
- Would you leave an otherwise similar company that doesn’t have a pension for one that does?
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Almost sounds like a scam its too good to be true. Incredible that they are able to offer these incentives to their employees, too bad more companies can’t afford to do that.
As I can recall, auto workers had a “cushy” pension which crumbled towards the end and now is leaving so many retired workers in the dark and waiting for social assistance. Nustar might look good now, but as the company grows, I’m sure this model will have to change somehow to sustain itself if anything.
@ Aman – Actually GM’s pension plan is extremely well funded for decades to come. Common misconception.
Where does the company say anything about full salary for 1.5 X years of service? That makes no sense in light of the other pension. I think if you work there 20 years you get 0.016 * 20 = 32% of your salary until you die. It’s still great benefits, but I’m just sayin’ is all…
My employer offers a pension. Conditions worse than Nustar Energy. I would not leave the company if they do not have a pension program.
The company can have other advantages.
As Aman mentioned, you need to be careful, many autoworkers have lost what they had.
This is really nice to see that they are offering such incentives. If more companies would be able to do that, it would be great.
UPS pension used to be great, but it has gradually gone away. In the group my husband is in, he only gets about 1/2% of pay for each year worked, so even if he works for the company for 40 years (age 25-65) he will only get about 18% replacement from pension. For this benefit they reduce our match by 1%. I’d much rather have another 1% match in my 401k than the pension. Oh well.