Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week?

#11

Post by ezekg » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

I took a 70% pay cut to work 4 days a week. I wasn't happy, and I was constantly angry and burned out. I felt I worked too much and for no reason other than to make somebody else rich.

But I quit to work 100% on my own business, 4 days a week, so there's also that. :)

Re: Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week?

#12

Post by dyeje » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 10:15 PM UTC

0% because I think it will increase my productivity overall.

Re: Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week?

#13

Post by giantg2 » Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

beforeolives wrote: post #8

0%. I would like to make more money, not less. I'm not in a place (geographically or in my career) where I make enough to start voluntarily giving up a % of my salary. On the other hand, if anyone is offering a 20%+ raise for a 6-day workweek, I would seriously consider it.

I agree, but it would have to be more than 20% to be fair. Benefits are a big cost to employers. If they are the same benefits between a five and six day week, then I would want 25-30%.

Re: Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week?

#14

Post by giantg2 » Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

ezekg wrote: post #11

I took a 70% pay cut to work 4 days a week. I wasn't happy, and I was constantly angry and burned out. I felt I worked too much and for no reason other than to make somebody else rich. But I quit to work 100% on my own business, 4 days a week, so there's also that. :)

I wish I had the skills and balls for that

Re: Ask HN: What % pay cut would you be willing to take for a 4-day work week?

#15

Post by brtkdotse » Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

A really good way to do reduce your hour and actually increase your pay is to become a contractor.

For the past 3 years I’ve been working sub 30-hour weeks while increasing my post-taxes pay by 30-40%. The contracts are long (3-24mo), you can deduct equipment, courses and conferences and the boring stuff (bookkeeping, taxes, sales) can be outsourced for a fraction of your billing. A nice bonus is you don’t have to participate in all the meta-work (team building, internal trainings and all-hands).