My entire working career was for a corporation owned by an invidual. He didn't want the bother of "plans" of any kind, so he used the mindset of "you're all big boys and girls" and paid us much better than average with the idea that if we wanted benefits, etc., it was our choice.
In my case it worked well - wifey and I bought a vacation home as our retirement plan, and got it paid off....we live here now, and it's worth probably 6 times what we paid for it.
Personally, I'd always rather be paid the extra money and control it myself. I don't trust my employer to manage my money better than I can.