Employee Meal Cards vs. Food Coupons: Which Is Right For Your Business?

Employee expectations have evolved over the last few years. They expect employers to take care of their necessities instead of just providing a competitive salary. One major challenge that an employee faces is tax liabilities. This takes away a significant portion of their pay. Companies were quick to address this by offering benefits that help with tax deductions. One popular opportunity emerging out of this trend is meal benefits. Employers can offer this either through employee meal cards or food coupons/vouchers. Although these two sound like the same thing, there are some fundamental differences between the two.

In this article, we will compare employee meal cards and food coupons/vouchers by discussing what they include and the benefits that each card provides.

Employee Meal Cards

Employee meal cards or food cards are typically benefits cards that allow employees to pay for their food and drink expenses. Employers issue prepaid cards in association with benefits platforms like Zaggle SAVE to their staff with a pre-defined portion of their salary loaded into the card. Employees can use this card to purchase food and related items across offline and online stores. In essence, it is similar to a debit card, but only for food and it is to be used at cafes, restaurants, and grocery stores only.

Employee meal cards allow companies to customize the meal benefits to suit the preferences and needs of individuals. For employees, it removes the hassle of preparing food when they’re in a rush to the office while saving money in taxes. 

In addition to the benefits that food cards offer to employees, it is also a favorable benefits scheme for your business. Let’s see how.

Benefits of employee meal cards for employers:

• As an employer, you can provide a better employee experience with food cards as employees can purchase food at their convenience and from the place of their choice.

• Meal cards are a cost-effective option for providing employee benefits. Since they load the amount every month, they have greater control over budgeting and managing costs.

• By providing employee meal cards, you comply with tax regulations. As per the rules, employees can claim a food allowance of up to Rs 42,000 annually.

Food coupons

Food coupons are basically vouchers that employers give their staff against a part of their salary to provide tax benefits. These food vouchers can be used to purchase food items and non-alcoholic drinks at any restaurant or outlet that allows payment through the vouchers. 

Benefits of food coupons for employers:

• Employers can create a positive workplace by giving them tax breaks and meal benefits with food vouchers.

• As it is usually an optional benefit option, you can provide employees with the freedom to go with it or not.   

Differences between employee meal cards and food coupons

As discussed, employee meal cards and food coupons have quite a few differences in the way they function and provide benefits to the employees. Let’s discuss them briefly.

Ease of use:

• Meal cards: Can be used anywhere to purchase food items just like a debit card.

• Food coupons: Not every outlet allows you to purchase food using vouchers.

Validity

• Meal cards: Money added to your employee meal card will be at your disposal for as long as you like.

• Food coupons: The vouchers usually have a year-long validity post which they expire.

Flexibility

• Meal cards: You can use these cards to make purchases of any value without loss.

• Food coupons: Your bill must be in multiples of 5, ss the vouchers come in denominations of 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on, and vendors don’t give cash in exchange for vouchers.

Online purchase

• Meal cards: You can make purchases on e-commerce websites.

• Food coupons: They can only used at offline stores.

Help employees save more with Zaggle SAVE meal cards

Employee meal cards are a rather new concept that evolved from the limitations of food coupons. It provides both employers and employees with greater freedom to offer and leverage meal benefits respectively. 

Maximize the value of employee card cards by choosing Zaggle SAVE. It provides the following advantages:

• SAVE Employees meal card is a digital-first solution that allows you to plan, implement, and manage employee benefits digitally through automated processes.

• Zaggle SAVE is a 100% compliant meal card that provides enterprise-level security, and category-based purchases, and restricts fund transfer between cards to block any fraudulent activities.

• Employers can closely monitor their meal benefits program using a highly intuitive and visual dashboard providing a transparent tracking mechanism.

• SAVE also allows you to add provisions for fuel purchases, education spending, and so on, allowing you to create a comprehensive benefits card.