Better Compensation, Without Spending a Penny More

_{A new path: wellness compensation}‍

Imagine a common scenario: your employer gives you a 3% salary increase on your $75,000 annual salary — that’s $2,250 gross. But once the usual taxes and deductions are applied, that increase boils down to about $62.31 net on your biweekly paycheck… or the equivalent of $3.12 more per working day.
‍

“It’s an almost invisible raise: easy for the employee to forget, hard to showcase, and especially costly for the employer,” points out Jean-François Lessard, co-founder of Tedy.
‍

The company, which already has over 500 clients across Canada, has developed an innovative approach: wellness compensation. Instead of allocating the entire annual raise as salary, why not direct a portion of it toward a personalized wellness budget?

Tedy  makes it simple and intuitive to manage this wellness account, which can be used across a wide range of categories: health, fitness, transportation, mental health, pet care, cultural activities, and more.
‍

$1 spent on wellness = $1.50 perceived

‍For the employer, the total compensation budget stays the same. “But the perceived value multiplies,” notes Lessard. A recent survey of 250 Canadian companies found that amounts allocated to flexible wellness compensation are perceived as up to 1.5 times more valuable than those tied to traditional, rigid programs. Why? Because they are personalized, aligned with each individual’s values, and seen as a concrete gesture of recognition from the employer.

“It’s not a vague amount hidden in a paycheck; it’s real, tangible access to services and experiences that improve daily life, and that creates a powerful symbolic effect.”
— JF Lessard, Co-founder, Tedy

A modern, human, and creative approach

‍Salary increases are seen as an obligation, but rarely as a lever. “What Tedy proposes is to turn them into a strategic tool, serving people’s well-being,” says Pamela Bérubé, CRHA, co-founder of the HR firm Go RH and president of Huni EAP.
‍

According to her, the effect is twofold: “Employees feel seen, recognized, and valued, while employers maximize every dollar invested — in retention, attractiveness, and productivity.”
‍

Anna Potvin, CRHA, partner and head of compensation practice at Normandin Beaudry, also sees wellness compensation as a creative way to deliver a “wow!” effect when salary offers are already competitive. “If employees feel fairly compensated, with a competitive base salary and benefits, it’s often the other forms of compensation that really shape the employee experience,” she explains.
‍

Wellness: the new HR reflex to adopt

‍Wellness compensation is not an extra expense, but a smart reallocation of what is already being offered. With a simple, intuitive platform that’s quick to deploy, Tedy makes it easy to automate wellness programs. That’s why its model — based on a fixed monthly fee per employee — is standing out as an increasingly sought-after tool in companies’ total compensation strategies.

‍