Originally Posted by Good Beer

Recommendations
The first and most basic recommendation would be not to re-invent the wheel. There are a lot of factors involved. Standard relocation packages are just that – they are a PACKAGE.
Like a three-legged stool, all the elements are inter-related and required, as we saw with the VAT and tax equalization.

Establish a Cost of Living Adjustment. Avoid the temptation to do this yourselves, there are standard methods for figuring this out. It’s the fair and equitable approach and the only way to provide our pilots with a stable salary.
Transferring currency exchange risk from the company onto the pilot by paying us salaries in dollars all while we incur living expenses in
Euros is wrong – we’re pilots not currency traders. Finally, equalize the Value Added Tax within a COLA computation.
Once a COLA is in place, the tax equalization program that currently exists is complete and valid.
Establish a Standard Housing Allowance. Use standard methodology which will render this allowance location specific.
Establish a mechanism for bringing an apartment up to US standards. By this I mean installing items that are normally found in US apartments (like kitchens cabinets and appliances, light fixtures, closets, painting, and replace carpet), but are not necessarily found in all French apartments. This would also include required work to make the apartment clean and livable. A way to deal with this is to allow reimbursements of expenses incurred to bring
apartments up to the standard we normally expect in the US.

Offer a realistic shipping allowance. It might be combined with a furnishing allowance –more shipment less furnishing allowance.

Include FDA-assigned spouses in Language Education Allowances. At least allow couples to participate together. Re-visit how schools are accredited or compile a list of acceptable schools in Paris. The accreditation process may serve us well in the US, make sure it’s not forcing us into top-dollar schools in France.

Pay or strongly encourage a house hunting trip for the pilot and spouse to find
suitable housing. I think 5 days should be an absolute minimum with ability to approve more days by the RCP. The same relocation agency should provide post move-in support for at least a month, both over the phone and in person.With a COLA in place it would be normal to require families to pay their own housing deposits, handle getting to and from work, and buying their own cars. In other words, similar expenses that are normally handled by an employee working in the US.

Avoid actually changing money. Clearly FedEx generates revenue in Euros in Europe. Establish a Flight Ops cost center in EMEA and pay our European-based pilots and other flight ops employees a salary in Euros. Pay 40-50% of a pilots salary here in Euros and the rest in the US. This will NOT negate the requirement for a COLA adjustment or a housing allowance, but it will reduce currency conversion expenses that as things stand now are all
paid by the pilot.

Study the merits of an EMEA Flight Ops Cost Center. An EMEA cost center may offer economies of scale. Whether this option has merit or not requires in depth study – there are many aspects to be considered. Never the less, this is how General Electric pays their US employees assigned to France.

Having a portion of European Flight Ops salaries paid in euros would mean that our employees would have a French salary, opening up the possibility using the French health care system instead of HTH. It also means having work visas for our pilots and would automatically require a French work contract. The work contract is not a show stopper – US lawyers seem to cringe at this idea, but they need to work with their French counterparts to
understand how VERY benign this concept is. Within certain limits it can be whatever we make it.
The work visa might be another story.
The merits of an EMEA cost center for Flight Ops should be explored. The fact that other large, US companies opted for this solution should not be discounted.