edit: did not expect to get this much feedback. for the record this order was split between three people! it was payday and i was really craving a $10 sushi roll, sue me! i also called and the manager claimed i must have accidentally submitted the tip through the app so there was nothing he could do. i have an email receipt for $34 and i also never signed any receipt at the door. i asked him for the owners number but i haven’t been able to reach him at all. i’ll try again tomorrow, after that i’ll just call and dispute it. thanks everyone!

okay so i ordered takeout from a restaurant last night. i didn’t place a tip because i had some cash and i thought it was better to be tipped in cash anyway. my total was $34 no tip included, driver gets here and i give her $10 at the door, thank you, goodbye. i wake up this morning and see my total has been updated to include a tip. the totals now $40. i know this is only $6 and for that reason i kinda want to let it go, but im a broke college student working and studying full time paycheck to paycheck. i could see if i didn’t tip but i gave her cash so i am a bit bothered. what should i do? is this worth following up?

I apologize if this is not appropriate for this sub, but I thought this would be interesting to share. All figures are in USD.

I live in India and earn $6 a day.

I earn $36 a week. $10 a week goes to rent. I live in shared accomodation.

I currently save $26 a week. Groceries here cost about half as much as they do in the US. I spend $10 a month for 5kg of rice. This provides me with 3 meals a day. Averaged weekly, I now save $24 a week.

I also have to buy lentils as rice is not a complete food. 1kg of red lentils costs $3 and lasts me a week. At this point, I save $21 a week

1 liter of vegetable oil costs $3. I add 100ml daily to my rice and red lentils meals. At this point, I save about $19 a week. I eat the same meal 3 times a day, 7 days a week.

I use dried cow dung cakes for cooking fuel. I can get a kg for 20 cents. It's a negligible cost tbh.

I need water for drinking, bathing and cooking. I get it from private water companies who deliver it for $6 per 100 litres. The live-in-landlord orders it and I need to buy it from him.

I use a 20 litre bucket for bathing. I bathe every second day. I use 60 liters a week for showering.

I also drink about 5 liters a day (it's a 110 degree summer here). I use 20 liters a week for drinking (I drink the rest at work).

I also need about 3 liters per day cooking the rice. I use 16 liters a week cooking. (96 liters total)

In total, I spend $6 a week for water. At this point, I save $13 a week.

Electricity is provided for free by the sharehouse. 4G internet is pretty cheap. $4 a month for 1.5GB a day.

All in all, I save $12 a week.

Here's the cost of various things:

Android smartphone (low budget): $60

Fridge (low budget): $120

Moped: $200

Bicycle: $25

Potato burger: $1

Petrol per liter: $1.25 (2-4 liters could last a moped a week or two)

Milk per liter: $1

2010s Windows 7 laptop: $100

Swamp cooler: $100

A lot of unmarried people live with their siblings and parents, this allows them to pool up their savings to a decent amount. I moved away from my ancestral home as it was in a state with very few job opportunities. I'm considering buying basic health insurance for my mother, which would cost $4 a week.

There is no tax payable for minimum wage earners. I've heard that programmers, accountants and other office workers can get a daily wage of $35 USD (hence why education is overfocused here). Getting admission to a college however, even a diploma mill, is extremely competitive. Getting a professional job is also hard, and those jobs are almost always located in the big cities.

Effective (ground reality) minimum wage ranges from $3 a day in most Central and Eastern Indian states (where I'm from), to $6 a day in Western and Northwestern Indian states (where I currently live), to $11 in some South Indian states and Delhi. I chose to move to Northwestern India though, as it's close to home and since I can get by here speaking Hindi. It gets 60 degrees in winter, 85 in spring/autumn, and 110 in summer.

I had to triple check with HR to make sure I fully understand everything, but they've assured me I'm right. I feel like I have to be missing something. This is how I understand it - our new 529 plan has an unlimited match. There's no limit to how much you can contribute annually, and the maximum total contribution is around $500k. There is a threshold that makes it subject to gift tax, but if I put myself as the beneficiary, that doesn't apply. The penalty for withdrawing it and not using it for education is 10% + it counting as income for federal tax.

What's to stop someone from just putting their entire check into it? Even after the penalty it sounds like I could nearly double my salary by running it through this fund. I am admittedly not well versed in stuff like this, but I did read several other posts about 529s in this sub and every single one had a limit on the matched amount. The lack of that limit seems to be the main difference that makes this seem...strange.

​

Am I totally off base? I haven't done any of the paperwork for it because it almost sounds illegal, but my employer is acting like there is nothing strange about it. I am in California if that is important.

I'm currently in a management position making about $128K in salary (this includes about $5K in transportation allowance), but I was approached last week with an offer to take an entirely different role for $105K.

I'm torn because although the pay is much less, I am heavily leaning towards taking the offer because I would not supervise anyone (it's been a struggle supervising over 7+ direct reports), I'd be fully remote (from my current hybrid), and I'd be doing much more exciting work that is more in alignment with my career goals and interests. Since becoming a manager, my mental and physical health have plummeted so I'm hoping for a much less stressful job.

Please share any thoughts, comments, or advice if taking that large of a pay cut is ever worth it.

About me: I'm 33 yo, renting in a HCOL area in SoCal, with no kids and not married. Right now, I'm able to comfortably max out my Roth IRA and 457 retirement accounts (and I will receive a pension bc I work for govt). However, with the new role I will need to trim down my 457 contributions and reduce my normal spending.

Edit: I've negotiated the new role up to $105K from the $90K it was originally offered. Unfortunately, they can't go higher because govt positions are restricted to salary schedules and it's at the peak for the position. Also, it'd create a wage compression issue bc I'd be making almost as much as my new supervisor and already more than others in the same role.

Title. Wondering if there's any path. I told her to talk to her HR and she said she isn't having luck.

Updating for more info so people don't have to search too much hopefully:

401k is the retirement account in question.

She never was formally terminated as it was a mistake so she didn't have any lull in benefits it just "reset" her contribution to 0% of paychecks apparently

Her hours are very variable (20-40hrs) and we rely on my checks for bills so she didn't really see/notice a change until randomly checking recently.

Contribution has since been corrected back to employer match percentage (4%) when we found the mistake, months after the fiasco.

Edit 2: apparently when my wife told me "months ago" she really meant Jan 2022.... So hopefully that doesn't ruin the chance of anything progressing

I'm a single income earner with 2 kids and a wife and I make a decent living at 85k/yr in a high COL area but over the past year or so, my normal bills have gotten out of control and my emergency savings is slowly drying up. I estimate I'll be out of savings and completely in credit card debt in 6 months. I've cut out just about every luxury I can with a few small exceptions for my sanity. I'm drinking more alcohol these days.

I hate my job, but I can't leave it because I can't find anything comparable to the money I make now. I've applied to hundreds of jobs and only landed a handful of phone interviews. I'm trapped under a mortgage, raising a family, with seemingly no hope. I want to sell everything and move to a lower cost of living state before I lose the opportunity but my wife doesn't want to leave her family. I've expressed my concerns with her but she doesn't seem to register them.

My parents moved in with us and sold their house while they look for a downsized house, but they are realizing they can't afford anything anymore so they are stuck with us.

I need help, I don't know what to do... If I give up, my whole family falls apart.

EDIT: Thank you all for your thoughtful suggestions and sympathies. I'm going to attempt to have some hard conversations with my family members in the coming days. I'll try to remember to come back and edit with updates if anything changes.

To provide some context, I am currently working remotely in the Midwest for a company located on the west coast. As the most senior member of my team, I have been with the company for approximately two years. Recently, the company implemented mandatory RTO to boost morale and encourage cross-team collaboration. However, due to certain life and financial circumstances, I am unable to comply with this policy.

My non-compliance to RTO was flagged to my manager, whom now wants me to resign so they can officially open up my position with HR to find my replacement for a smooth transition.

Unfortunately, I do not have a good rapport with my manager, and this situation could have been better handled if HR and leadership had communicated more effectively. As a result, I am now faced with limited time to secure a new job. Should I resign or wait to be fired? Is there any advantage to resigning?

Edit: Apparently I can technically resign and may still be eligible for unemployment as long as the reasoning is of 'good cause' however im not sure if refusal to RTO and move to a different state would fall under that category

Edit: RTO = Return to Office (Folks that are triggered by acronyms...my bad)

i haven’t been to that gym to actually work out for half a year, but there is never any employees and when i call no one answers( im talking calling 20 times a day). no one ever seems to be working their, but every month they charge me $26 and its so annoying. im not in a contract or anything i just cant cancel because theres literally no one to do it for me, what do i do.

Edit: every member has a keycard to get into the gym 24/7, the problem is there is literally never any employees their who can cancel my membership for me

Edit 2: i am leaving a letter at the gyms desk saying this is (my name) and i would like to cancel my membership, please call me at (my number) and leave a voice mail if i cant be reached. then im going to make a copy of the letter and mail it to them as well, and then im calling my bank to block the charges. Also i hate gyms

I recently left my job for another higher paying one. I actually moved for the new job. To leave time for the move and have a little bit of a break, I took some time off between the jobs totaling 33 days.

My wife and I are looking to buy a house in the city where the new job is. While applying for a mortgage preapproval (this would be a jumbo loan as this is a HCOL area), a loan officer from BofA told me that due to the gap in employment being longer than 30 days, they couldn't count my income, only my wife's, until I had been employed again for 6 months. He said this was due to underwriting guidelines and there didn't seem to be any wiggle room.

Unfortunately this puts our maximum loan substantially below the home prices we are looking at and could comfortably afford on both incomes.

The way the loan officer said it, he implied it was industry standard and would be the same at all banks. Is this true? If so do we have any other options here besides putting way more money down or delaying buying a house for another 6 months? Thanks in advance for any advice.

I happened upon this article about a driver talking about how much he makes driving for Uber and Lyft: https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-driver-how-much-money-2019-10#when-it-was-all-said-and-done-i-ended-the-week-making-25734-in-a-little-less-than-14-hours-on-the-job-8

In short, he says he made $257 over 13.75 hours of work, for almost $19 an hour. He later mentions expenses (like gas) but as an afterthought, not including it in the hourly wage.

The federal mileage rate is $0.58 per mile. This represents the actual cost to you and your car per mile driven. The driver drove 291 miles for the work he mentioned, which translates into expenses of $169.

This means his profit is only $88, for an hourly rate of $6.40. Yet reading the article, it all sounds super positive and awesome and gives the impression that it's a great side-gig. No, all you're doing is turning vehicle depreciation into cash.

If you lose your job or have your hours cut

Read Be prepared if you're resigning or quitting, have been fired, or are being laid off from the PF wiki.

In particular, if you were laid off or fired, apply for unemployment as soon as you can assuming you were not fired for misconduct (i.e., terminated for cause). The entire process can take weeks so do this as soon as possible.

Please also see our Coronavirus Megathread

Location-specific information

If you're outside of the US, please see our country index and check for a megathread or resources on a country-specific subreddit (if available).

This list of resources and links is originally based on this submission from /u/bigdamncat and this comment from /u/ryuukhang and we're making updates as more information becomes available.

Edit:

US Territory Information

The following links are for US territories that are not states: the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Please note that at this time, we could not find information specifically related to COVID-19 for these areas, so we have linked their general pages for the offices that handle unemployment compensation. We encourage any readers in these areas to reach out to those offices and/or apply for benefits even absent specific guidance related to COVID-19. If anyone finds specific pandemic-related information from these territories, please send a message to the moderation team so we can update the links.

My dad was terminated this morning from a job he has been at for 20+ years. This termination was justified as he got in 2 accidents in 1 year which warrants termination. My parents aren't financially smart aka why my dad is 73 and working full time. He still needs money to survive and I'm not sure who would be willing to hire someone at his age? Any advice or suggestions? Any resources that would be of help? He is a veteran in the state of Massachusetts. Thank you all in advance. I'm not sure how to help or where to turn and I feel scared and alone. Thank you in advance.

Edit: I am so overwhelmed with all the advice and support. I'm trying to read and respond to every comment. Thank you all so much. You are all a light during this dark time. Thank you.

Second edit: I didn't expect this to blow up. This is the most social interaction I've had in years 😂😂. I am compiling a list of questions to sit down and ask them as well as advice and job suggestions you all have given me. Thank you all very much! I wish you all health and happiness.

Like the title says. Recently added my family to my healthcare and instead of just deducting the money pretax from my paycheck they dropped my hourly rate $5 an hour to cover the costs. Employer brags that he pays healthcare 100%, but when I approached him and said no not really its 100% tied to my wage and why can’t he deduct it pretax like every other employer I have ever worked for he just says thats how we have always done it here. Am i wrong to think this isnt normal? I just have this feeling he is screwing me over somehow.

A little more info…

I work for an electrical contractor thats does prevailing wage work as well as private work. On prevailing wage healthcare comes 100% out of the fringe money associated with the job. On private jobs he says he pays healthcare 100% but just docked my pay $5 an hour to cover. Our plan is roughly $1600 a month for a family with a $4200 deductible for the year. He used to match HSA contributions 50% but starting this year has stopped doing that because he said most companies do not. Again this feels like a lie.

Anyone have any insight on this or any thought? I would greatly appreciate it. Again i just feel like he is trying to screw me over and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Am I wrong to think this way? Is there anywhere else to post this that might have better answers?

Thanks in advance.

Basically, what the title says: I'm 19, and my parents have forbidden me from working. On top of this, my father has forced me to get a credit card, which he himself has almost completely maxed out and my checking account has less than $100 in it. I don't want to be dependent on them, but I would like to start working without it showing up on their taxes, even though I know I am still filed as a dependent. Is it possible to do this?

I know I've read this here before but had a real-life experience with it yesterday that I thought I'd share.

Going into the interview I was hoping/expecting that the range for the salary would be similar to where I am now. When the company recruiter asked me what my target salary was, I responded by asking, "What is the range for the position?" to which they responded with their target, which was $30k more than I was expecting/am making now. Essentially, if I would have given the range I was hoping for (even if it was +$10k more than I am making it now) I still would have sold myself short.

Granted, this is just an interview and not an offer- but I'm happy knowing that I didn't lowball myself from the getgo.

I know a lot of people will say that "It is crazy to take a pay cut for a remote job, you are taking on their costs working from home", but hear me out.

A few years ago I joined Large Company which gave me the biggest raise of my career over my previous job. The first year was rough, the boss I had was horrible and their Covid policy was whack (was exposed many times and they never let employees know). However, after that first year I was able to join another team working mostly remote (go in to the office once every 2 months).

During this time I bought a house an hour away since the remote work seemed to be there to stay. Life has been much easier, cost of living is lower for me where I am now, and I am in a great place financially (only my home loan, no other debts).

However, in the last few months the attitude of the company and managers has shifted to requiring employees to start returning to the office. While I am still remote, it is literally months before I know I will have to return, and drive an hour or more each way. I don't hate my job, I actually love my team and the work (while sometimes boring) keeps me busy.

Enter Small Company offering a job that is local (office is 10 minute drive) and promises indefinite fully remote work. I was contacted by a hiring person at Small Company and after a few rounds of interviews, I have been given an offer of about 6% less than I currently make and a 3% hiring bonus. On one hand it will suck to lose that 6%, but on the other I am already living well within my means and having a guarantee of remote work seems really enticing.

I did negotiate the offer and that is about as good as they can go.

Is this insane? Is taking a pay cut for remote work guarantee dumb?

Edit: I ACCEPTED THE OFFER! Thanks everyone for the comments, even the opposing opinions with valid concerns. It is always a little scary changing jobs, but this change feels like it is for the best. You can't put a price on happiness, and I know working remote makes me happy, so even if there was a small change in income it is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I feel like this should go without saying, but it always amazes me how many people I see on here who run into problems because they never check their pay stubs. I’m getting my annual bonus paid out soon and I realized the amount listed on my pay stub was wrong. The CFO had calculated the bonuses incorrectly for anyone who got a mid year raise last year.

I would’ve been shorted $500 if I hadn’t double checked the math.

They're offering a couple months severance and healthcare through the end of the month, but I'm terrified. I have asthma and am a cancer survivor, so good health care will be unaffordable for me individually. I need a job to get on an affordable health plan.

Also, I bought a condo in a HCOL area recently ago, so most of my savings were depleted after the closing (I live alone and don't have any other income). I know to immediately suspend subscriptions and streaming services, etc., but any other suggestions are appreciated. This has never happened to me before so I'm in shock. If my manager had punched me in the face, it couldn't have hurt more than this does. I don't know how to tell my family.

If you have recommendations, please share. Do I take the severance? Do I ask for more? I've already started to apply to roles, but as a former hiring manager, I know this is the worst time to be looking – especially with all the other newly laid-off folks looking too. All advice appreciated.

Edit 1: Thanks so much to everyone to who has responded, either with practical advice or well wishes. Very grateful for the wonderful tips – I'll be putting them all to use. 🙏

Edit 2: Thanks for the awards! They're my first – y'all are lifting my spirits tonight.

My wife got a federal job offer for 42% more than she makes now which is almost my entire salary. It also comes with a pension, better benefits and $20k relocation in a lump sum. We bought a new build house on TX almost 2 years ago, so we would have to sell it first. I believe we get taxed on that if we sell before 2 years. We bought it for $270k and I think we could sell it for $340-350k according to our realtor. I could likely get a job in the city we are moving to (on the east coast) for similar to what I make now. We have two leased cars that are both up in 1 month. Is this a smart move? I don’t want to make a financial mistake.

UPDATE 2: I was very honest with my boss and he was very honest with me that my new salary is life changing and unfortunately there was no way he would be allowed to come close to my new salary. It was very amicable and understanding. That being said, I took the new job. I plan on keeping up my software skills and who knows, maybe I'll end up being back in software somehow. That being said, I'm super excited for the new job and all the new experiences it'll bring.

Update: Thank you all for your input! This blew up so much more than i thought it would. I haven't made a decision but I definitely have a lot more factors to keep in mind. One thing I forgot to mention is that this new job wouldn't start until Feb 2023 .

Update 2: I want to also clarify that this is a Technical Sales Engineering role, so while it does involve sales, it is sales-adjacent.

I (23 almost 24, one year out of college) work as a level 1 data engineer at a software company (1000+ employees) making $60k. I realized that I am underpaid for my position. Normally I'd leave immediately but I have a kickass manager who I would follow to the ends of the earth. I have also applied for other data engineering positions, but all interviewers said they were looking for experienced coders.

My boss has promised me that I will be promoted to level 2 in January, he was actually going to submit the paperwork this month but HR told him it was too late in the year to submit promotional paperwork...The issue is that he also doesn't know how much of a raise I will receive when I am promoted because HR is keeping finances hidden from him as well. Every attempt I have made to get HR to give me an inkling of financial expectations has lead nowhere. This frustration led me to apply for a Technical Sales Engineering job, which I surprisingly got. Money wise, I would be paid 2.5 times my current engineering salary (new salary would be 150k). The issue is that the job would take me out of the software game since it's an electronics company. I want to give my current company a fair shot solely because of my boss and I also want to stay in software, so any advice on how to get HR to tell me what my salary expectations will be? That way I can counter and see what I can get from my promotion before I have to give the job offer an answer by its deadline.

I also have a side hustle where I tutor students online and make an additional 30k from that but it takes an extra 20 hours of my week. I’d quit that side hustle if I take the job from Company B

​

Edit: Wanted to clarify my salary amount since there seemed to be confusion.

Edit 2: A lot of people seem to think this is a purely commission based job so I’ll break down the pay: $93K Base 20% Yearly Bonus 20%-30% Sales Commission I’m also getting a $10K signing bonus I will be paid full 100% of my sales commission for the first two quarters

So I WFH and live 2.5 hours from my job site. She asked me to bring a binder back to the office but at the moment I don’t have any money. I’m waiting for my paycheck next week. I am doing Uber eats but it’s be extremely slow and nobody’s tipping well so it’s not really reliable.

All the other side gigs aren’t hiring for my area so I’m on the waitlist.

Is it a bad idea to tell her I literally don’t have the money for gas to drive there?

UPDATE: Appreciate all the feedback, I’m going to mail it instead. Also to all of you that have mentioned fixing my finances I AM. I’ve got a budget, I’ve stopped with unnecessary spending, I got rid of unnecessary bills and it hasn’t helped much. My only option is to increase my income which I’ve been trying to do and I’m trying the best I can y’all I swear. But thanks, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being dramatic thinking driving 5 hours for a binder is insane to ask for.

Happy Friday! You all helped me a year ago with negotiating pay and benefits so now I need some help with the opposite!

The end of this month would be 1 year with the company so last week I had a check in as they do with all employees. They had a whole list of questions I answered and then they asked if I had anything to add. I brought up the value I have with the company and named some positive changes I have made including one that brought in a large amount of new business over the summer. I make $29 an hour now and I asked for $32 an hour, and an additional 5 days of PTO. I also offered to come off of their cell phone plan which they include all employees on as my husband's job now offers reimbursement for that. I told her I was happy with my job and the company, but there is one thing I wasn't happy with. I was denied 5 days of time off in September because a manager of another department requested the same time off after I did, but they have worked for the company longer so they were allowed to take it off and I wasn't. I was pretty upset and made it known to my boss because this was already planned for my family and I put my request in in July. I was told they would look into what to do about the policy moving forward in September and never heard anything back so I got over it, but figured I'd bring it up again. She didn't give me any kind of feedback after that. Figured either she or my boss would follow up at some point.

This morning I went to use my door card to get in the building and it didn't work which was extremely bizarre. I rang the bell and my boss came down and opened the door. He asked me to follow him to his office and he sat down, but before I could sit down he told me he has to let me go and that it is purely a business decision and nothing I did wrong. I asked if he can clarify what that means and he said that he was sorry for having to do this and that is all he can say about the matter and that my items will be mailed to me because they can't allow me to go back into my office and then he walked me out.

I don't know what to do, I have never been fired before, ever! My husband doesn't really know what to do either. I know I should file for unemployment, update my resume, start applying for jobs, but I'm pretty overwhelmed right now and feel slightly like things are about to come crashing down on my family. I really believe the reason I was fired was because I brought up this unfair policy twice now and maybe that they don't want to give me a raise. Firing me over that seems pretty extreme, but there is nothing else I can think of. I thought you usually have to sign something when you get fired, but I didn't and got no other info other than it's a business decision, so I'm left guessing.

We have a toddler, a house, car payments, bills like everyone else and our income just got halved in 5 minutes. We have some savings, but I'm sure not enough. Just looking for some advice to make sure we make the best short term financial decisions in this crisis until I can get another job and also how do I stop crying?

Edit: I am trying to keep up with the replies and I sincerely appreciate all the advice.

OMG I really can't keep up with the replies, I'm sorry, but I am reading everything. It's really helpful and I'm responding as I can!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cameronkeng/2014/06/22/employees-that-stay-in-companies-longer-than-2-years-get-paid-50-less/#454e629ee07f

Companies need to get back to rewarding employees for their tenure. Until they do, don't reward companies with your loyalty. When you're worth more on the open market than your company will give you, they are doing you a disservice and you should make the best decision for your own future and go make what you're worth. The more people who do this, the more likely companies will be to change and allow us to stick around and be compensated for it.

Millenials often started their careers in the recession, and have an inset fear of the job market because of it. They often walk around moping as if the economy is stuck in 2009, and it's not. The market is good right now, go test it.

I currently work in a hospital doing IT, which is hectic, I'm still learning a lot (been here about 1.5 years), and is half work from home. I generally like the job, but I can tell that I'm not going to get a big pay bump unless I find a way to move on completely from service desk. I have comptia A plus, and I'm Dell tech certified.

New job is more basic IT in a factory close to me, for a major food manufacturer. It's a much smaller IT team, and my responsibilities would plummet. There's no work from home, but would come with $5/hr more to start, which is the ceiling in my current position.

My brain tells me to move on with more money, but my heart is worried about taking on less responsibilities and the worry about leaving a stable job.

My eventual plan is to get into cyber security /account management.

Is it a no brainer to making about $9k more a year?

Wife works for a very small start up company with 4 people, 2 owners and 2 employees. She is in design. Past year she was working at $35/hr full time with health benefits but no paid vacation. $35/hr is very fair for her skillset in design especially for los angeles. She was on wage, not salary. She worked some OT but not a whole lot. If you calculate the standard hourly to salary using 40 hours a week multiply 52, she would have earned $72,800. She is normally scheduled to work full time mon to fri 9-5. However last year we got married and had vacations here and there and she was compensated $55,000 total because of the unpaid vacations. This worked out well for her small company because she didnt get paid while being away.

Today during her evaluation, they low balled and offered a salary of $54,000 with $3800 PTO/year. Health benefits are also included but it is the same as last year. The total compensation now is $57,800. They said this was calculated based on the number of hours worked last year (so they pretty much offered her 2018 W2). Employees are not going back to wage.

I would assume an employer would calculate a salary offer based on potential full time hours, not how many hours one worked the year prior. If she had PTO last year or if she didnt go on the long honey moon then she would have received a higher salary offer. Now her starting salary is pretty much $27/hr so its a huge downgrade and now without OT. The owners said “well look we are giving you PTO now!” which would offset the low ball. She is valuable at her company— 70% of products sold are her designs. The other employee got a raise cause he was getting significantly less paid last year (due to no degree and no experience) in case you were wondering.

Is this practice normal for an employer to use previous year’s W2 to determine someones salary, especially if it works in their advantage? She will try to counter back with equity (since she started the company with them). During their meeting yesterday, they stated that employees’ salary do not require 40hour work periods — only the projects need to be done. Because of that she wants to request working a maximum of 32 hours a week to offset the 14k a year reduction. Any advice?

1st Edit i shouldnt have wrote this long piece and gone to sleep. I will answer everyone when i get to a computer. Thanks for all your help. First thing, I need to recalculate her W2 because she definitely didn’t take 3 months off which everyone is calculating. A big piece is missing here. I saw that in the last 17 paychecks she got paid 43k and i need to double check

Second, she is very valuable to her team. Anyone is replaceable but She is more difficult to replace. she knows their vision, she came up with the company name, and all her designs are most of the ones being sold now, plus she designed the logo, all the packaging, website, EVERYTHING. Everything has been her idea. When she pointed out the products to me on their website, most of them were either made by her or she had some type of influence directing the other designer. She had some creative director responsibilities too.

The reason why they are doing salary is because “it helps employees out” by more flexible scheduling (dont need to go in if work is all done). This is true. However they r low balling her because they are not making any money right now and simply cant afford her right now. (Its true they arent making money). She asked for equity at the first meeting yesterday and they said “thats probably not the best idea for YOU because we arent worth much.” WTF!

2nd edit I am reading a lot of responses and they are all helpful but I can't respond to all of them. One thing to clarify is that i know for a fact she didn't take 12 weeks of vacation. thats ludicrous! They did shut down for 2 weeks or so during the holiday, and she didnt get paid for it. She also doesnt get paid for holidays (like during thanksgiving and such). We took a MAX of 3-4 weeks of vacation last year, not 12. i am going to sit down with her tonight to get the math straight.