Getting paid on your way to work might sound too good to be true, but it’s an increasingly popular scheme in Europe鈥攊f you commute via bike.
Already, employers in Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands reward their employees for every kilometer and mile pedaled to the office. Some French workers could soon receive the same benefit under a by the country’s transportation minister, Fr茅d茅ric Cuvillier. A measure aimed at boosting bike usage in France would reimburse employees between 21 and 25 centimes per kilometer (roughly 29 to 35 U.S. cents).
Pedaling commuters are being paid 20 euro cents (29 U.S. cents) per kilometer in Belgium, 15 cents in the Netherlands, and 20 pence (32 U.S. cents) in Britain per mile, .
In the United States, compensating bike commuters has yet to gain the traction that it has in Europe. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey, only in 2011.
Since 2009, the IRS added a bicycle commuting reimbursement benefit to the books that allows employers to reimburse bike commuters up to $20 per month for flat tires and other expenses.