Where I work, an exempt employee starts earning 28 days per year. However, this includes holidays, sick time and vacation, so essentially not that different that a lot of companies.  Significantly less than government employees by the way!  So while 28 sounds like a lot, it really isn't if they do it the same way. If they get holidays, sick time, and 28 vacation days - well that would be pretty good.

Trade? No way. To me that is stupid, because you essentially are just  having the employer pay the bill. Why not just pay the bill yourself?  Why not maintain control over your own money?

Our retirement savings are charged a fee each month, our Health Spending Account is charged a fee, I am pretty sure that the company will charge a fee for this "service", now or in the future. Another example is a consulting company I worked at that offered dry cleaning, hair cuts and other services due to how many hours we had to work. First they did not pay overtime, second they offered a "service" to make you think you were getting something, but then they charged you considerably more than you paying for it on your own.

Milton Friedman said there is no such thing as a free lunch. It sounds to me like they are trying to sell this as a benefit you get for free when you really are paying for it.