9 ms·

I'm employee #1 at a Canadian startup, and they get by paying me about 3300 per month, before tax. Based on my asking-around, this doesn't seem to be out of the

by anon330 15y ago

I'm employee #1 at a Canadian startup, and they get by paying me about 3300 per month, before tax. Based on my asking-around, this doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary for the area.

jonknee 15y ago
That's only one portion of the costs. Besides the associated taxes and insurance they have to pay rent/utilities, purchase equipment, etc etc. The quoted figure was total expenses / employees, not employee compensation.
- tlrobinson 15y ago
  The figure I've heard is 1.25-1.5x base salary.
  - jonknee 15y ago
    That sounds right for direct staffing costs (health insurance isn't cheap!), but low if you mean counting in all the other stuff. I suppose it depends on the business--someone like Dropbox spends a lot more on servers than say Groupon.
    - tlrobinson 15y ago
      Right, that's for the incremental cost of each employee: taxes, benefits, equipment (for the individuals, not servers), office space. It's useful for calculating how much a new employee will cost you.
      - bigiain 15y ago
        I've always used a rule-of-thumb of a 100% overhead rate for employees - it's a spectacularly easy number to work with mentally, and its right to well within acceptable error bounds an awful lot of the time. If I'm paying you $90k, I'll expect to incur an additional $90k in costs resulting from employing you.
    - chopsueyar 15y ago
      Server costs will continue to decrease, whereas salespeople will continue to demand more (we aren't going to lower the minimum-wage).
- cek 15y ago
  Correct - the term used is "fully burdened cost per employee". The general rule of thumb is to multiply salary by 1.25 - 1.5.
davidandgoliath 15y ago
Depends on what you're doing there. But yes, cost per head is not 100% compensation. If you've got multiple employees @ a start-up making $180,000 per year there's an issue. //Now, if they've re-mortgaged their house and are eating $180k per annum in equity / stock instead of salary, then it could be an almost-fair-number.
ojbyrne 15y ago
Not sure where you are in Canada but I know thats pretty damn low for big cities like Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

by anon330 15y ago

I'm employee #1 at a Canadian startup, and they get by paying me about 3300 per month, before tax. Based on my asking-around, this doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary for the area.

jonknee 15y ago

That's only one portion of the costs. Besides the associated taxes and insurance they have to pay rent/utilities, purchase equipment, etc etc. The quoted figure was total expenses / employees, not employee compensation.

tlrobinson 15y ago
The figure I've heard is 1.25-1.5x base salary.
- jonknee 15y ago
  That sounds right for direct staffing costs (health insurance isn't cheap!), but low if you mean counting in all the other stuff. I suppose it depends on the business--someone like Dropbox spends a lot more on servers than say Groupon.
  - tlrobinson 15y ago
    Right, that's for the incremental cost of each employee: taxes, benefits, equipment (for the individuals, not servers), office space. It's useful for calculating how much a new employee will cost you.
    - bigiain 15y ago
      I've always used a rule-of-thumb of a 100% overhead rate for employees - it's a spectacularly easy number to work with mentally, and its right to well within acceptable error bounds an awful lot of the time. If I'm paying you $90k, I'll expect to incur an additional $90k in costs resulting from employing you.
  - chopsueyar 15y ago
    Server costs will continue to decrease, whereas salespeople will continue to demand more (we aren't going to lower the minimum-wage).
cek 15y ago
Correct - the term used is "fully burdened cost per employee". The general rule of thumb is to multiply salary by 1.25 - 1.5.

davidandgoliath 15y ago

Depends on what you're doing there. But yes, cost per head is not 100% compensation. If you've got multiple employees @ a start-up making $180,000 per year there's an issue. //Now, if they've re-mortgaged their house and are eating $180k per annum in equity / stock instead of salary, then it could be an almost-fair-number.

ojbyrne 15y ago

Not sure where you are in Canada but I know thats pretty damn low for big cities like Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.