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Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

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Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#31

Post by bbcbasic »

_2yrb wrote: post #27
okoksowhatis wrote: post #25

Why do you not simply use some of the extra income to hire someone to do the paperwork for you? Or hire someone to find someone to do the paperwork for you? Edit: For example if you paid me $1,000 USD I would find someone in Romania to take care of the paperwork side of affairs for you, within the extra income you make, and with very little input from you aside from finished product.

But would I trust you with my financial paperwork if you missed that I already answered this question?

You haven't answered that in your question. You didn't say why the bureaucracy is a problem and why paying someone to deal with it isn't a solution.

Edit: oh I see the answer nested in a reply near the bottom. Probably worth including it in your original question.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#33

Post by drazvan »

I'm also in Romania, making about $95k/year. I'm running it through my company, an LLC (SRL in Romanian). Starting in 2016, you can classify yourself as a micro-enterprise if you make less than EUR 100k ($112k) and you pay 3% in tax if you have no employees or 1% if you employ at least 2 people (could be you and your spouse for instance - that's what I do), then an additional 5% in dividend tax if you want to get cash in your pocket and don't expense anything. An accountant will cost you about 100 EUR (probably less in your case if you have just one monthly invoice to your client).

I'm not sure why you'd want to stay below $55k, depending on where you live you may just get additional projects and outsource them yourself to a junior dev you can monitor. That would give you your two employees to qualify for the 1% tax and you could move more of your workload to the additional dev as he/she learns stuff.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#34

Post by bjourne »

You can't! It is essentially only in the free software world where your value as a human being is not valued by how much money you make.

Trust me, I've worked in the big Swedish company that took advantage of cheap Romanian and Bulgarian programmers and they were deemed as inferior. I didn't review any of their code so it is possible they were.

In all the jobs I've had, I've been treated with more respect and my opinions have carried more weight the more money I made. It's just how things are. I live a very frugal life and I don't need that much money, but I always aim for a salary much above market average because I know it will mean I will enjoy my work more.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#35

Post by cweagans »

As someone who lives in a much less expensive part of the United States, I've run into this too (though likely not to the same degree as you). My advice: if you're skilled enough to command a higher salary, IMO, you should always push for it. Use some of the extra money to pay an accountant to do the paperwork for you. With the rest, invest it or if nothing else, put the extra money into a retirement account. You'll just be able to retire that much more quickly.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#36

Post by twic »

brndn wrote: post #18

I have found there to be some common misconceptions about how tax brackets work, at least in the US. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your country and you might already be aware of this, but just in case it is helpful to anyone... Only the income that is above the boundary of that higher bracket is taxed at the higher rate. All of the income below the boundary is taxed at the lower rate. E.g. if you make $105k…

The OP mentioned that the problem with the higher tax bracket is that it means "a lot more paperwork and headaches".

Something similar exists in the UK: if you earn a salary of £99,999 or less (and don't fall foul of certain another criteria), you can pay tax via your employer, with no paperwork on your part. But if you earn £100,000 or more, you have to file a tax return of your own.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#37

Post by Nicholas_C »

nostrademons wrote: post #13
_2yrb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good idea, if the salary talk is after I've had a chance to prove I have value. But a lot of times there's actually a specific field in the application form with "expected compensation".

Put market rates down in that field, and then when they reach a hiring decision, say "By the way, because of tax rates in my country, I'd like it if you could make my salary no more than $55K and donate the rest to these charities." I don't know any business that wouldn't be glad to find out, on hiring decision, that their new employee will cost them half as much as they bargained for and they can take a tax write-of…

If you're trying to get a job at BigCorp that's probably an HR nightmare to figure out.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#39

Post by brianwawok »

rabidrat wrote: post #14
new_hackers wrote: post #2

Ask for other compensation rather than money. For example, ask for a 4 day work week, or 2 months paid leave, or possibly other perks that are important to you? You could also ask that the company make a donation on your behalf to another cause. The nice part is that you can look passionate, important, and pragmatic all at the same time. For example, say "I deeply care about free and open source software. As part of…

I've been asking for 80% time for 10 years, and my current company is the only one who has ever approved it. Companies say that only the work matters, and they want to be flexible, and yadda yadda, but corporate culture expects you to be available on Fridays, at least nominally. And this is more true the bigger the company.

The only counterpoint I could see is that you have fixed costs (insurance, desk, computer).. so 80% pay for 80% work is a small raise I guess? To make the bean counters happy maybe 75% pay for 80% work would be more fair?

But regardless, seems pretty awesome. I would want employees to get work done, not sit in a chair. I suspect someone working 4 day weeks would get more work done, per hour average, then someone working 5 days a week. Seems a no-brainer for a business to allow.

Now 1-2 day weeks for 20-40% pay? I can see communication is a bit tricky.. but 4 days a week is plenty.

Re: Ask HN: I don't need a big salary, how to avoid being deemed as lower quality?

#40

Post by brianwawok »

bbcbasic wrote: post #29
rabidrat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the company I'm at now has the 'unlimited time off' policy. Which has been shown to reduce the amount of time off people actually take, and means they don't have to pay out vacation when you leave. And that's on top of the perception that they're being kind to their employees. A triple win for the company. But that's exactly why I want my 80% time to be officially recognized. I don't want to feel guilty or worry…

What happens if you test that unlimited policy and take say every Friday off?

Your coworkers will resent you, and maybe try to get you on the crap projects.
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