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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?

#71

Post by stepbeek »

kova12 wrote: post #50
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?

Our benefits are all things that wouldn't make sense to take away from a part-time employee to be honest.

We don't offer private health care currently, and every other benefit is a pretty direct link to how productive that employee is - technical books, better work environment etc.

For instance, we do a "wonder week" once a quarter to work on side projects/learning etc. To me, not letting a part-time employee do this would be to treat it as a kind of bonus, when instead we view it as an opportunity to explore ideas and skill up.

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

#72

Post by a-saleh »

Talk to your accountant.

I would say, that for people wanting i.e. 3 day weekend, or 6 hour days, agreeing on the 4/5 or 3/4 salary is reasonably simple (I even managed to use this in my salary negotiation, where they offered me X$ for full time, and I managed to negotiate 85% X for 4/5 part-time)

The extra day/two hours are not as big of a difference in productivity anyway :)

I would say there is bigger difference in below 3/5 part-time, and in companies I have been at, there is assumption that people with less than 3/5 part-times are sort-of on extended trainig? I.e. summer project -> internship -> part-time -> full time progression was expected over ~2 years.

If you can, and your regulatory environment allows it, look for other means of employment.

You could help your new highers become self-employed and then have just an agreement for billable-hours, but you can easily break the regulations for social security payments this way.

In my country we have 'agreement about commisioned work', that is somewhere in the middle between being fully employed, and being self employed, but with some aditional constraints on maximum billable-hours per month? I don't remember, do consult your accountant responsible for payroll :-)

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

#73

Post by pingyong »

asdkfjasl wrote: post #41
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.…

>You'd have to suppose that the 0.6 time worker is at least 1.1x as productive per hour just to break even.

IMO that is easily achievable. Probably an underestimation. People who work for 6 hours, 4 days a week are going to be vastly more concentrated and rested. Physical labor might be different, but jobs that require mainly mental effort/creativity will benefit a lot from being rested.

Wasn't there a company that tried 30 hour work weeks for everyone and production stayed almost equal?

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

#74

Post by quickthrower2 »

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…

If a company said to me were dropping your rate because your part time then I’d be insulted. OTOH hiring is opaque enough that a company could hide that from me and say we’re offering X without letting on they applied a part timer tax.

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

#75

Post by ghaff »

yoz-y wrote: post #68
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What issues does that come with, in your opinion?

Not parent but unlimited vacation policy is often criticised as a way to bully people into taking even less vacation. Since you can’t know how much is “okay” you end up in a guilt trip if you take more than some colleague.

Hence my point that there needs to be clear top-down setting of expectations. If you have company management that looks on "unlimited" vacation as a way to avoid having to pay out accrued vacation if an employee leaves combined with a way to grudgingly allow a day off here and there when it's convenient for the company... That's going to be a very bad fit with an employee who sees it as an opportunity to take a couple months off every year.

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

#76

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jonatron wrote: post #39
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, could you link to that and/or explain it, against whom is it sex discrimination. I know that in the UK the "wage gap" favours women in part-time work according to the National Statistics Office .

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discriminat... Under "Indirect sex discrimination"

Thanksatron.

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

#77

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jonatron wrote: post #39
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, could you link to that and/or explain it, against whom is it sex discrimination. I know that in the UK the "wage gap" favours women in part-time work according to the National Statistics Office .

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discriminat... Under "Indirect sex discrimination"

Having read that now, I'm still not sure who it's supposed to be discriminating against?

If a parent, say, gets refused part-time hours, how does their sex alter the effect of that refusal?

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

#78

Post by elindbe2 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #77
jonatron wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discriminat... Under "Indirect sex discrimination"

Having read that now, I'm still not sure who it's supposed to be discriminating against? If a parent, say, gets refused part-time hours, how does their sex alter the effect of that refusal?

Women are more likely to desire part time hours because they are always the ones who are getting pregnant and typically the ones raising small children.

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

#79

Post by pbhjpbhj »

elindbe2 wrote: post #78
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having read that now, I'm still not sure who it's supposed to be discriminating against? If a parent, say, gets refused part-time hours, how does their sex alter the effect of that refusal?

Women are more likely to desire part time hours because they are always the ones who are getting pregnant and typically the ones raising small children.

Isn't it a private matter for a woman to decide whether to raise a child or not - regardless of the common good child rearing brings - assuming women raise children is wrong, and sexist too.

There's statutory parental leave to cover pregnancy already.

To mimic your response: men are the ones with the muscles, they are _typically_ stronger therefore we should discriminate.

Seems wrong.

(I'm just returning to my former work as my last child enters institutional schooling, and am male. There's a lot of discrimination here.)

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

#80

Post by yitchelle »

warp wrote: post #40
purrcat259 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why 30?, that just seems like a strange number. Assuming 8 hour work days, 32 seems a more obvious choice. You get 1 day/week off. I've always started at 40, then negotiated down to 36, then to 32 at the same salary whenever offered a raise. If you're having a hard time finding a job, maybe tough it out for a year then negotiate for less hours when you've proven yourself. Obviously helps to be working for smaller com…

Actually, it seems very logical.

I would do 3 days at 10 hr per day, and 2 days on other stuff. Personally, I would prefer full days slots rather than a few hours free per day

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