Cafeteria is a list of free-choice benefits you can offer as a company for your associates above their salary.
The system has already got some decades of history in the European countries, and has become popular in our country as well in the past 10 years as today 40% of the big and middle sized companies are using some type of cafeteria solution.
The notion "Cafeteria" comes from an analogy with the French expression "a la carte", which means restaurants offer a list of meals in their menus for free choice.

The system allows that employees define the specific items of their benefit packages according to their actual needs and living standards.  Cafeteria provides visibility in the agreement of interests between the employers and employees. 
At each company Cafetéria contains different elements according to their strategy and to the specific needs of their employees.

What belongs to Cafeteria?

First of all different tax free benefits of any kind.
(for example: meal tickets, lunch tickets, hotel vouchers, cash contribution to the school year opening, to the private internet access, local season-tickets, contribution to the medical insurance, contribution to the voluntary old age insurance, gift token, culture token etc.…)
The measure of the tax allowance is regulated by the law that you have to take into consideration while creating the individual benefit packages.
(See: Personal income-tax year 1995.  CXVII. Code)

What is the value limit?

400.000 HUF in a year/employee

Methods

• You can offer a certain percentage of his/her brutto salary for every employee or you can define a value limit
• You can offer different packages for different work groups
  
  
  

What kind of advantages do you have with a Cafeteria?

• You can provide a higher netto value for your employee on a lower cost rate.
• It is a cost saving procedure with a growing level of satisfaction

• In many cases it increases the performance, since most elements of the Cafeteria have some impact on the employees' health or on their leisure-time activities

• It gives a visibility in the benefits of the organization
• It creates a new benefit culture

• You can show your appreciation while the employees can enjoy the freedom of choosing what they really need
  
  Disadvantage: growing administration burden

What kind of advantages do employees have with a Cafeteria?

• They realize a higher netto value than having that amount of money built in their salary.
• They can adjust their packages to their real needs. They have an overview about the benefit system within the company.
• It's a flexible benefit system