Base salary vs employee benefits
Discussion
I'm currently contemplating a role, the base salary is good and is more than I'm on now, but there are absolutely zero other benefits.
No death in service, no health insurance, no sick pay, no compassionate leave etc.
I don't intend to use any of them, and I don't have any dependents, but I can't deny they offer gentle reassurance in the back of my mind.
It would be pretty miserable to be off sick for a week or more and be out of pocket, or to have to take time off a week because a parent has died, only to have your salary docked.
An unlikely scenario, but I'd be interested in the collective thoughts of PH.
No death in service, no health insurance, no sick pay, no compassionate leave etc.
I don't intend to use any of them, and I don't have any dependents, but I can't deny they offer gentle reassurance in the back of my mind.
It would be pretty miserable to be off sick for a week or more and be out of pocket, or to have to take time off a week because a parent has died, only to have your salary docked.
An unlikely scenario, but I'd be interested in the collective thoughts of PH.
No chance.
If that is how they think they can treat employees it’ll be terrible to work there, don’t know the role / if you are leading people but that’d be extremely tough.
I expect, at a minimum, pension, full sick, death in service, critical illness, private health for myself and partner, plus a car and bonus.
If that is how they think they can treat employees it’ll be terrible to work there, don’t know the role / if you are leading people but that’d be extremely tough.
I expect, at a minimum, pension, full sick, death in service, critical illness, private health for myself and partner, plus a car and bonus.
BucksFizz said:
I'm currently contemplating a role, the base salary is good and is more than I'm on now, but there are absolutely zero other benefits.
No death in service, no health insurance, no sick pay, no compassionate leave etc.
I don't intend to use any of them, and I don't have any dependents, but I can't deny they offer gentle reassurance in the back of my mind.
It would be pretty miserable to be off sick for a week or more and be out of pocket, or to have to take time off a week because a parent has died, only to have your salary docked.
An unlikely scenario, but I'd be interested in the collective thoughts of PH.
Not sure what Industry or what level of seniority but no sick pay or compassionate leave seems plain wrong. No death in service, no health insurance, no sick pay, no compassionate leave etc.
I don't intend to use any of them, and I don't have any dependents, but I can't deny they offer gentle reassurance in the back of my mind.
It would be pretty miserable to be off sick for a week or more and be out of pocket, or to have to take time off a week because a parent has died, only to have your salary docked.
An unlikely scenario, but I'd be interested in the collective thoughts of PH.
Have they given you a staff handbook in advance as that’s where I found we got compassionate leave as was never mentioned anywhere else !
Health insurance etc might depend on the level of seniority too.
Holiday allowance ?
Is the new base materially higher ?
t pension and no other benefits, hard pass.Sounds odd for a software dev role to me. I’d be saying no based on what you’ve said so far.
But is there something else in the package that you’ve missed - ie in tech, the only time I’ve been offered a package with “no benefits” was in a startup where I received equity which could have been worth millions(ish) if it had worked
But is there something else in the package that you’ve missed - ie in tech, the only time I’ve been offered a package with “no benefits” was in a startup where I received equity which could have been worth millions(ish) if it had worked
Just waiting to see the details on the job I've just been offered. Paperwork tomorrow.
I know the pay is £55k, I know they will match what I into pension pay up to 12%. I will pay in 15K, because I'm wanting to retire one day.
I know there is a factory shutdown at Christmas for the week between Xmas and New year. I know there is life insurance and sick pay, and health insurance and dental plans, but not sure on details. but not sure about sick pay.
Hybrid working is rare and at decretion of Manager. Flexible working can be applied for after 26 weeks. (IS that employment law anyway?)
I know the pay is £55k, I know they will match what I into pension pay up to 12%. I will pay in 15K, because I'm wanting to retire one day.
I know there is a factory shutdown at Christmas for the week between Xmas and New year. I know there is life insurance and sick pay, and health insurance and dental plans, but not sure on details. but not sure about sick pay.
Hybrid working is rare and at decretion of Manager. Flexible working can be applied for after 26 weeks. (IS that employment law anyway?)
BucksFizz said:
It's a software developer role.
Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
Yeah that's poor for software dev. We offer paid sick pay, 4x DIS, 5 years critical illness cover, 12% max pension, paid compassionate leave (and my team get treated like adults, so the 5 days in the policy is 'guidance' for me), loads of soft benefits that add up. Including pension, the value of my benefits is about 25% on top of my salary. I'm fortunate and we are probably at the opposite extreme.Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
Unless the salary is outstanding, and you're looking for a mercenary type role, or you can learn some specific skills you want, I'd look elsewhere.
The culture of a company can be inferred a bit from what they offer employees. If the benefits are bare bones, what else is?
Is it a start up or scale up? If so it's not unusual at that stage in their maturity as they can't leverage economies of scale for many of the benefits that a few here claim are deal breakers for them.
Usually you'd expect them to overpay in salary or offer future vesting equity or options, truth at the moment though is that across many disciplines there are more candidates than roles so the balance has shifted to the employer.
If you want to talk it through in confidence, drop me a PM, I run a recruitment team for a global tech vendor.
Usually you'd expect them to overpay in salary or offer future vesting equity or options, truth at the moment though is that across many disciplines there are more candidates than roles so the balance has shifted to the employer.
If you want to talk it through in confidence, drop me a PM, I run a recruitment team for a global tech vendor.
BucksFizz said:
It's a software developer role.
Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
Unless the base is materially higher then I too would be a pass. Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
Pension is also very ungenerous.
The lack of compassionate leave would be the least of my concerns though.
Sounds very much like a US company's approach, especially with the lack of sick pay. The health insurance wouldn't bother me so much but unless there's some other kind of incentive it doesn't scream that they value their employees very much if they state up front there's no such thing as compassionate leave. Not exactly something that you plan to use when joining a company but usually it's at least detailed as discretionary in the handbook. Seems very cold to me.
Simbu said:
The culture of a company can be inferred a bit from what they offer employees. If the benefits are bare bones, what else is?
In my experience I’d totally agree with this. Pay rises will be non-existent or hard fought and the general attitude to employees will be ‘if you don’t like it, leave’. They’ll struggle to attract quality talent and any decent, motivated staff will be using it as a stepping stone on to something else. That’s not to say it’s a bad option, you could be using it as a stepping stone yourself!
BucksFizz said:
It's a software developer role.
Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
Software devs are in massive short supply. You can do way better than that. Keep looking, companies should be flinging benefits and salary at people to win them over Pension is 3%, and the handbook specifically says no paid compassionate leave. Holiday allowance is typical.
SSP only.
When I recruited a dev team last year we were having to pay way over the benchmarked salaries, with a decent chunk of benefits on top and people were still coming in with a list of other things they wanted, 4 day weeks for example, and other companies were giving them it.
Han Solo said:
No chance.
If that is how they think they can treat employees it’ll be terrible to work there, don’t know the role / if you are leading people but that’d be extremely tough.
I expect, at a minimum, pension, full sick, death in service, critical illness, private health for myself and partner, plus a car and bonus.
Well, to be fair, as a Tie Fighter Pilot I think I would be asking for sick pay and critical illness insurance....If that is how they think they can treat employees it’ll be terrible to work there, don’t know the role / if you are leading people but that’d be extremely tough.
I expect, at a minimum, pension, full sick, death in service, critical illness, private health for myself and partner, plus a car and bonus.
Some great comments thanks.
I spoke with the hiring manager, she said they dont have these benefits because of economies of scale, but perhaps as the business grows they will be able to justify them (head count of 30).
She is going to see if they can do something for me, failing that, I was going to suggest an extra £5k on base salary. This would take my rise to 17% over my existing job, which I think should make up for it?
I spoke with the hiring manager, she said they dont have these benefits because of economies of scale, but perhaps as the business grows they will be able to justify them (head count of 30).
She is going to see if they can do something for me, failing that, I was going to suggest an extra £5k on base salary. This would take my rise to 17% over my existing job, which I think should make up for it?
BucksFizz said:
Some great comments thanks.
I spoke with the hiring manager, she said they dont have these benefits because of economies of scale, but perhaps as the business grows they will be able to justify them (head count of 30).
She is going to see if they can do something for me, failing that, I was going to suggest an extra £5k on base salary. This would take my rise to 17% over my existing job, which I think should make up for it?
What’s your existing pension like?I spoke with the hiring manager, she said they dont have these benefits because of economies of scale, but perhaps as the business grows they will be able to justify them (head count of 30).
She is going to see if they can do something for me, failing that, I was going to suggest an extra £5k on base salary. This would take my rise to 17% over my existing job, which I think should make up for it?
All the benefits you aren't getting are worth more than £5k to most people I'd say.
I'm am IT geek too. Whilst I flip between contract and perm roles fairly often my last two perm roles have included:
Health insurance (whole family) - circa £3k BiK and when I got quotes to continue personally they were much higher!
Pension 13% and 17% (from employer)
Sick pay... generally at discretion but 6 months+ at full pay
I'm am IT geek too. Whilst I flip between contract and perm roles fairly often my last two perm roles have included:
Health insurance (whole family) - circa £3k BiK and when I got quotes to continue personally they were much higher!
Pension 13% and 17% (from employer)
Sick pay... generally at discretion but 6 months+ at full pay
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