That's what I'm talking about though. The government thinks people should have these things but doesn't have the political will to implement them so they demand that employers provide them rather than just paying cash. This is the reason that the category 'employee' exists in the first place.

‘so they demand that employers provide them..’ Yes, that’s the situation in the US, yes, not sure how relevant it’s to this discussion, though. In many European countries healthcare is funded through a payroll tax and provided by the government/a public agency.

Yes and that's what we should do instead of this half assed, politically expedient, 'make the corporations pay for it' bullshit that we do now.

Let people opt into those things, or make it up to local law and let municipalities compete on services.

That comes from a privileged point of view. People with little skills will be coerced to give up these things and the cost will be shifted on other people.