Who are you?
What industry do you work in?
Residents, employees, and visitors in the San Francisco Bay Area have more modes of public transportation to help them get around than any other region in the United States.
Residents, employees, and visitors in the San Francisco Bay Area have more modes of public transportation to help them get around than any other region in the United States. We have ferries, streetcars, light rail, buses, iconic cable cars, subways, casual carpool, bikes, scooters, and many more. While many other cities like Philadelphia have one agency running their trains and buses (hi, SEPTA!), the Bay Area has a whopping twenty-seven. Bay Area commuters also experience one of the longest average one-way commutes in the country. It’s not unusual for commuters to regularly ride across three systems in a day, and of course each agency has its own passes, prices, discounts, and transfer rules.
For employers and HR practitioners helping their employees get to work, trip planning can easily get complicated. Add to that the complexity of regional employer mandates, and the thought of all these commutes might start to get a little overwhelming. Keep reading for answers to some of the biggest transit questions in the Bay.
Yes. Any employer with 50 full-time employees or more located within the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is subject to the Bay Area Commuter Benefit Program. This district boundary includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano, and southern Sonoma counties.
The Bay Area’s mandate comes from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), which is led by a board of 24 elected officials from across the nine-county Bay Area. The Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program, as the mandate is known, was proposed by BAAQMD and adopted by the California State Legislature in 2016.
Commuter benefit mandates, sometimes called transit benefit mandates or commuter benefit ordinances, are growing in popularity across the country. These mandates are pretty similar: businesses of a certain size must provide a way for employees to put aside pre-tax dollars to spend on eligible expenses related to getting to work. The purpose of these mandates is to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Employers with 50 full-time employees or more located within the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, must offer at least one of the following options to their employees:
Several cities within the Bay Area have their own benefit mandates on top of the regional requirement, including:
If employers in these cities don’t meet their local requirements to offer transit benefits, they must still follow the Bay Area Program if they have 50+ employees.
The Bay Area has a wide variety of Transportation Management Associations–or TMAs–that can help employers. TMAs are “member-controlled organizations that provide transportation services in a particular area, such as a commercial district, mall, medical center or industrial park.” TMAs in the Bay Area include:
Bishop Ranch Transportation Management Association
Contra Costa Center Transit Village
North Bayshore/Mountain View TMA
San Mateo Rail Corridor Association TMA
Many employers within TMAs still appreciate the additional time and cost savings of working with a third party benefits administrator. Jawnt is always available to discuss implementing a commuter benefits program at your organization.
Registering your benefits and maintaining compliance is easy.
To meet the minimum requirement of the mandate, employers only need to give their employees the option to set aside their own payroll funds for commuting. But many employers chose to do more.
Popular offerings include:
Jawnt’s team of transit planners and benefit administrators are available to help you understand your options, requirements, and find a solution that will satisfy employers and employees alike. Drop us a line today to get started.
