The average mortgage in my town is north of $5000/mo. That $2400/mo is the true cost of insurance. Your bigco employer pays most of it, and you pay the rest.

The average mortgage in my town is north of $5000/mo. That $2400/mo is the true cost of insurance. Your bigco employer pays most of it, and you pay the rest. So, yes, when that part of your pay is lost, it sucks. It sucks a lot. But that's not what we're discussing. We're discussing the financial situation you're in when you get paid bigco wages, and have to deal with 8% layoffs every 8 years, or working somewhere else, where you get paid substantially less (And also probably have to deal with layoffs, it's just that they don't hit the front page of HN). It's a financial no-brainer to me. If the wage delta is more than a rounding error, I'm much better off, financially in just taking the money.