You're misunderstanding what he's saying. He got a 50% cut in salary, but because all of that comes from the higher brackets, his take home is only 35% less. I

You're misunderstanding what he's saying. He got a 50% cut in salary, but because all of that comes from the higher brackets, his take home is only 35% less. I do the same thing (Australia). Worked 9 months last year and made about ~82-85% of what I would have working the full year, rather than 75%. Incidentally this is why progressive tax is so important for a good startup culture (and thus overall tech scene). It's a negative tax on risk. The steeper your progressive ramp, the less of your geniuses are working in shit jobs creating UI form widgets with 40 managers telling them to redo it every other day.