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It's not just founders, it's a big deal with startup staffing in general. I took an effective pay cut when I went to work for a startup because they weren't big
by MartinCron 17y ago
It's not just founders, it's a big deal with startup staffing in general. I took an effective pay cut when I went to work for a startup because they weren't big enough to buy health insurance in bulk the way my previous employer could.
My CEO wrote about this last year: http://www.benhuh.com/2009/08/01/the-killer-fear-of-guaranteed-healthcare/ http://www.benhuh.com/2009/08/01/the-killer-fear-of-guarante...
- grandalf 17y agoWhy does it matter whether your pay cut was in the form of a perk or salary? Clearly if your startup employer chose to offer you cash instead of a healthcare plan, it did so because it thought you'd value the cash + flexibility more than you'd value the plan. It's simple for any small business to sign up for a group plan for employees... and it's not the cost that is the issue, it's the perceived value of the service.
- MartinCron 17y agoWhat I was trying to express, poorly, is that the same benefits package is much more expensive to the smaller employer than to the larger one. For me, what it meant was that I had to make a (relatively small) sacrifice to take a job. For others, it might be the difference between being able to work at a startup or stay with a soul-crushing big company.
- grandalf 17y agoWhat it boils down to is that startups sometimes pay less than larger, established firms. It doesn't matter how you break down the compensation into salary and perks. So while it's true that someone with a preexisting condition might not be able to take a job IF the compensation wasn't high enough, it's irrelevant whether the compensation includes healthcare or if it doesn't.