This Company Is Paying Its Employees To Exercise 2.5 Hours A Week

We should all be exercising at least 2.5 hours a week for good physical health, but there’s an actual company out there that pays their employees to do this.

Clif Bar & Company is owned by husband and wife team Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford. The company started because the couple were so active and was born in 1990 when Erickson went on a 175 mile bicycle ride.

The couple told CNBC that employees are encouraged to work out 30 minutes a day on company time, meaning they’re essentially paid to exercise two-and-a-half hours a week.

“We have a program where if you work nine hours a day for nine days, then you get the tenth day — every other Friday — off,” Erickson explains. “Or, you can work for eight-and-a-half hours and work out for 30 minutes.”

With 490 employees at the company’s Emeryville, California headquarters, it’s even easier to get this exercise in because there’s a 2,500 square-foot onsite gym. There’s even a bouldering wall for employees to climb, as well as group classes, personal trainers, and weights and machines.

“Our participation rate is extremely high,” says Erickson, and it’s only been beneficial to the company: “Our employees are more enthused and more inspired to work and fulfill their job because they have all these unique benefits.”

If only all work places offered this kind of benefit!