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Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#41

Post by asdkfjasl »

pmyteh wrote: post #7

I've mostly worked in public-sector bureaucracies, not software companies, so my experiences won't line up exactly. In each case, the rule has been strictly pro-rata. I've generally felt that the company has had the good end of that deal, especially for the higher fractions (0.6/0.8 of full time): productivity seems to me to be non-linear, and trading off the end-of-the-week burnout for a little more payroll admin an…

I mostly agree, although it's worth noting that there are probably some fixed overheads of being employed that eat up some of the otherwise expected benefits. Let's consider a scenario where there are 4h average fixed overhead for working at a company. Now let's run the 0.6 time vs. 1.0 time scenarios.

1.0 time. 40h - 4h overhead = 36h. Pay = 1. Work-to-pay ratio is 36h:1p.

0.6 time. 24h - 4h overhead = 20h. Pay = 0.6. Work to pay ratio is 33h:1p. You'd have to suppose that the 0.6 time worker is at least 1.1x as productive per hour just to break even. If you provide benefits that don't scale with fractional work you need even more of a productivity edge to justify it.

The corollary of this is that you'd really better make sure you have little fixed overhead time for your workers if they are working fractional time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#42

Post by ghaff »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #34
mxuribe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to correct you that in the U.S., the starting PTO might be more like 10 or 15 days...but then remembered that this is all in the UK. (Man, i really dislike the U.S.' version of capitalism.) Otherwise, great inputs on the costs you referenced; cheers!

I also bundled in "sick" with "personal" and "vacation" because I've seen US companies do away with all of the distinctions and just say "here's 20 days a year, do what you want with them. You'll get more next year."

Unfortunately that's pretty common. Old-line companies (including in tech) often still have the sick-time/vacation distinction but my impression is that it's relatively uncommon in newer companies. It has to some degree been replaced with "unlimited" vacation but that comes with its own set of issues.

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#43

Post by singron »

jonatron wrote: post #20
stepbeek wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're in the UK. I think the lower bound of this from our perspective is 50%, though wondered whether it would be perceived as willfully ignoring that productivity is non-linear. To be honest, I hadn't really considered the legal ramifications: I'm hoping if I behave fairly then I can avoid having to think too hard.

Citizen's Advice lists requiring all employees to work full time as an example of indirect sex discrimination, so by advertising part time jobs you may be protecting yourself.

I think you mean "requiring all employees to work full time..."

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#44

Post by ghaff »

antoinevg wrote: post #35

Yeah, if you're not offering me 75% pay for 50% work I'm not interested. My peak productivity is 3 days a week. The gains from working more than that are marginal at best.

Are you offline for the other two days? It may not affect you much but "You can't schedule meetings with me or get answers to questions on Monday or Friday" tends to have an impact on other people in most jobs.

Do you get 75% pay for 50% work? Based on no particular experience, it seems that would be difficult to sell.

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#45

Post by eximius »

purrcat259 wrote: post #26
matthewmacleod wrote: post #16

I would advise you to just make it pro-rata. Don't fiddle around and worry about the relative pocket-change of overheads. You will save yourself lots of headaches, and my experience is that you will get more value out of two employees working 20 hours a week than you will out of one employee working 40 hours. It all evens out in the end. Aside: I really want to encourage you to do this. In my previous job, I went to…

Hey, I have a few questions if you don't mind I am working 30 hour work week. I recently switched jobs and I consider myself a strong candidate. In nearly all of my interviews, as soon as I mentioned wishing to work 30 hours (because I want to have time to sharpen my skills in my other 10 hours, which I always sold as a positive feedback loop which helps me be more knowlegable at work), the HR admin/recruiter would g…

I think you're being too honest. I wouldn't blink at any of my employees spending an hour a day at continued education, self improvement, etc. 2 hours a day... Might be pushing it a bit. The 1/he a day is for non-directly work related things that might come up later (i.e., learning network programming or systems or databases, whatever), whereas if you are claiming to make yourself better at your current taskset... There's nothing better than actually DOING that.

Anyway, all that to say that if my employees spent only 35hr/wk being productive with the other 5 for learning, I'd consider that a fine allocation.

Edit: actually not even 35hr, I just can't quite bring myself to support a blanket 2hr a day for this specific non-business productive activity. 35hr/wk of productivity is a bit of a pipe dream

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#46

Post by jonatron »

singron wrote: post #43
jonatron wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citizen's Advice lists requiring all employees to work full time as an example of indirect sex discrimination, so by advertising part time jobs you may be protecting yourself.

I think you mean "requiring all employees to work full time ..."

Yes, edited.

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#47

Post by MuffinFlavored »

ghaff wrote: post #42
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also bundled in "sick" with "personal" and "vacation" because I've seen US companies do away with all of the distinctions and just say "here's 20 days a year, do what you want with them. You'll get more next year."

Unfortunately that's pretty common. Old-line companies (including in tech) often still have the sick-time/vacation distinction but my impression is that it's relatively uncommon in newer companies. It has to some degree been replaced with "unlimited" vacation but that comes with its own set of issues.

What issues does that come with, in your opinion?

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#49

Post by joeflesh »

I think that part-time is very attractive to a lot of potential employees and you are dipping into an under-utilized talent pool. As with any role, you just have to find the right people. I had a 50% time engineer for a while who was more productive than the full-timer whom he replaced. In another role I had a full-timer who was measurably less productive than someone at 60% time.

Scale the salaries pro-rata. At around 60-70% time this works out very well for employers as you have a very focused worker who appreciates the flexibility.

Re: Ask HN: How do you scale salary for part-time work?

#50

Post by kova12 »

pmyteh wrote: post #7

I've mostly worked in public-sector bureaucracies, not software companies, so my experiences won't line up exactly. In each case, the rule has been strictly pro-rata. I've generally felt that the company has had the good end of that deal, especially for the higher fractions (0.6/0.8 of full time): productivity seems to me to be non-linear, and trading off the end-of-the-week burnout for a little more payroll admin an…

Not familiar with UK employment practices, but: do the businesses pay any benefits to part-time employees?
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