I mean come on.. What is with these companies... And they wonder why they have a high attrition rate... If you do not take care of your employees, they will not take care of you...

They only let you spend US$13.00 on dinner, while the CEO is travelling cross-country on the companies Gulfstream V

Part of the concept behind the amount the Feds pay for meals and incidentals is that it is partial compensation. One would be paying something for M&I at home anyway.

Canadian Federal Government rates:

Breakfast $10.00, Lunch $10.30, Dinner $27.60, Incidental Expenses $11.50. Rates in the far north are higher. Rates in the USA are the same, but paid in US$ (Alaska at the far north rate, in US$).

There is a directory of approved hotels, with the negotiated government rates listed; if travellers can find a non-listed hotel for less than the most expensive approved hotel, they're welcome to it.

There was a similar discussion last summer: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/001655.html

New York City is probably one of the best places in the world where you can get a terrific dinner for $25 or less. I can think of a ton of places and my mouth is watering already.

For my company, your expenses have to be "reasonable" and if you exceed $25, you need a receipt.

In the private sector, per diems don't always make sense .. what makes more sense is a reasonable set of guidelines that you can expect people to follow on a broad basis, so if somebody has a good reason to spend $50 on one dinner with colleagues, they can perhaps offset it by saving some money on other meals, so you average out within the guidelines.

Personally, I try to keep my meal expenses and incidental expenses to a reasonable rate when I travel, because I want to be able to keep traveling without breaking anybody's budget.

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 02-21-2001).]