Factors such as climate, disease and sanitation standards, ease of communications, and physical remoteness can often affect the success of a foreign assignment. Moreover, the local political and social environment, political violence, and crime may give rise to potentially uncomfortable, inconvenient, or even dangerous situations. To encourage mobility, reliable information is needed to help calculate fair, consistent expatriate compensation for hardship locations. Our two methodologies for assessing these factors are incorporated into a new online calculator that streamlines access to this information.

The benefit of two approaches

Mercer offers two ways to compensate mobile employees fairly for going to a host site with a lower quality of living than that in their home location. Quality of Living Reports (QOL) recommend a point-to-point comparison assignment premium in order to recognize differences in home and host conditions. Location Evaluation Reports (LER) assess living conditions against generally accepted standards, providing a single premium recommendation for all assignees, regardless where they come from.