Convince your employer to pay for your gym membership!

October 20, 2022 • Natalia Czulak

Imagine being able to work out every day at your leisure – and for free, too. Wouldn’t that be great? The solution: Let your boss pay! We’ll tell you how your employer can benefit from sponsoring your gym fees or your Urban Sports Club membership – and how we can convince them of the benefits of corporate fitness.

Can my boss pay for my gym membership?

Yes! Employers can sponsor or even fully pay for your membership. Since 2022, companies have given up to 50 euros monthly as a tax-free, non-cash benefit to each employee. Company fitness is considered a popular measure for company health promotion.

employer gym — Strengthening team spirit – in the gym with colleagues and employers

Why are fitness and exercise so necessary today to balance the job?

How long do you sit on average per day? Eight hours? Twelve? Most of us spend the majority of the day sitting. Whether on the computer at work, on the train, or watching Netflix on the couch – we sit too much. In addition, in 2018, Germany landed in 15th place among the most inactive countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) ranking. That means more than 40 percent of us do little or no exercise and sit most of the day. This is not necessary because the alternatives are there: Fitness, for example, makes you healthy and fit. Fitness also strengthens your mental health and gives you moments of success and happiness. The good news is that it’s not that difficult to integrate fitness into your daily routine. The famous “climbing stairs instead of taking the escalator” is a start. You can also use your lunch break for half an hour of yoga or EMS training. Training your fitness flexibly and individually is all the more important in your busy schedule.

Yoga corporate fitness employer — Yoga in the lunch break – gather new energy with colleagues with company sport

More and more employers offer their employees company sports. Why is that?

Employers are fighting harder than ever in today’s job market for the best talent. Standard terms and conditions are no longer enough to convince someone like you. An attractive overall package is, therefore, all the more critical. This package includes work content, working atmosphere, and salary, but also great benefits. Many companies are consequently introducing occupational health management (OHM) measures to strengthen the health of their employees. These measures are not just about existing problems or illnesses, but above all, about preventing stress, for example.

The goals of workplace health management can vary from company to company, but most workplace health promotion (WHP) measures revolve around exercise and fitness, nutrition, or mental health. After all, you are probably placing more and more importance on flexibility, a healthy work-life balance, and your physical and mental health. Corporate sports as a benefit measure is especially popular because it has many advantages: higher motivation and satisfaction, healthier staff, stronger teams, better work-life balance, and much more. These factors are essential to most companies today. It has simply become a matter of being actively involved in employees’ health.

Why should my employer subsidize a gym or sports membership?

The staff is the be-all and end-all of a company. Your employer should ensure that employees, including you, are healthy and happy. We’ve already mentioned some benefits – but let’s face it, the cost is also an essential factor. All the better that you can increase your happiness and fitness, and your company benefits simultaneously. The excellent news is: company fitness is tax-deductible!

Since 2022, employers in Germany have been allowed to give up to 600 euros a year or 50 euros a month as a non-cash benefit to each employee tax-free (§ 8 para. 2 sentence 11 EStG). A non-cash benefit is an extra given by the employer to the employee in the form of a gift.

Sounds complicated? Here’s a more straightforward explanation: Your employer can offer you and the staff certain benefits in addition to your salary, for example, to attract you to the company or to increase your satisfaction within the team. For this purpose, they have 600 euros available per year. They can distribute this among various benefits that are part of the tax-free non-cash remuneration. These include sports activities such as fitness studios or a company sports membership, a meal allowance, fruit baskets, or voucher cards for specific goods or services. The best part? Neither you nor your employer has to pay taxes on it: Both get the company fitness membership completely tax-free, saving you money. It’s a win-win situation!

All the benefits of health promotion at a glance:

Increase the physical and mental health of the employees
Cost reduction of up to 300-500 Euro per sick day
Employee loyalty to the company and team through increased satisfaction, staff motivation, and team events
Tax deductibility of company fitness through tax-free benefits in kind
Modern and flexible measures to increase employer attractiveness on the labor market for personnel – employer branding
Flexible company fitness contract – adapted to the needs of your company

happy employees through corporate fitness — Stronger team loyalty and motivated staff through company fitness

What are the benefits for me as an employee?

Apart from the fact that you can save up to 50 Euros per month or 600 Euros per year, and you don’t have to pay taxes for it, you increase your physical and mental health with fitness. You no longer have to rely on the stairs in the office for your workout, but you can use your membership to find a sport you enjoy and relax while doing wellness. Plus, you can train with teammates and strengthen your bond with the staff. You train your fitness in the gym or with your sports membership, and your boss pays.

What are the advantages of Urban Sports Club compared to regular company sports, e.g., gym?

Urban Sports Club offers a new and modern approach to workplace health promotion (WHP), enriching your corporate culture in many ways. With the company fitness membership, you don’t have to choose a sport, but have access to more than 50 sports partners at more than 7,000 partners in Germany. You can train flexibly once a day – on-site and online. Whether fitness, yoga, climbing, swimming, sauna, or wellness – with the versatile company fitness offer, there is something for everyone. With this size and attractiveness of the offer, no fitness studio or other health promotion can keep up.

An additional benefit for staff: you can join your team for sports, depending on their interests. Example: Today, you go with two colleagues for a massage at noon, and tomorrow after work with two others for bouldering or EMS. Checking in for sports is as simple as signing up for a membership via the app.

Check-in Urban Sports Club — Easy check-in at the gym around the corner through the employer

With well-known companies such as Barilla, Teufel, and Denk Werk, Urban Sports Club already has many satisfied company sports customers in its portfolio. By the way, many of them became aware of us through their employees. They often already use Urban Sports Club privately and then contact us because they have heard about the possibility of a subsidy as health promotion through the employer.

In concrete terms, what does a corporate sports cooperation with Urban Sports Club look like?

Every company has different wishes, goals, and requirements for corporate fitness cooperations. In the first step, Urban Sports Club works out the purposes of your company and then recommends an individual package with services tailored to you. The amount of the subsidy for the employees can be chosen freely – and is tax-free up to 50 Euros per person.

Once you’ve decided, you’re ready to go: Your company gets its own landing page. On it, you and other staff can sign up for your subsidized Urban Sports Club rate. You will also receive help with the internal presentation of the new concept: tips on motivating your staff and individually tailored (digital) company and information events.

Bouldering company sports employer — Overcoming bouldering challenges together with the team

This way, the entire staff is reached and motivated to take advantage of the wide range of sports and learn about all the services. At the same time, Urban Sports Club relieves corporate clients of the workload that would typically involve introducing corporate fitness to the company.

I want to get my boss excited about Urban Sports Club. How do I go about it?

Nothing could be easier: Send the contact form to your employer and get your HR team, the HR department, or the responsible person to fill it out. Of course, the arguments mentioned above are pretty helpful here. Urban Sports Club will contact your employer directly and discuss the further procedure for introducing the health-promoting measures. Together, we will convince your boss!