How Shopify pays differently 💰

Would you prefer this?
20VC out now with Kaz Nejatian. Link in bio.
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[@night_bot_dev]

Laid off 17% of staff and then threw a party for those left behind.

[@Berenski]

Honestly what a lot of companies do after a reorganization to boost morale

[@sahebjotsingh6306]

It’s giving people choice on based on their needs and risk appetite they can go after just cash or more equity

[@Deveonn]

This is basically the standard Dutch Goverment salary. About 15-20% is by choice.

[@AshishOnline]

Wow, i would love to work at such firms. I never knew this.

[@user-xedwsg]

@@AshishOnline you've been indoctrinated into being a spectator. My hope is that you start a business and implement this yourself. All the best stranger

[@jaaaake]

Netflix has been doing this for years. How is this a Shopify thing…

[@mattiaselisson55]

Because shopify did this 18 years ago. Not a implementation ”some years ago”.

[@jaaaake]

@@mattiaselisson55 ​​⁠looks like the Netflix culture slide deck was 2005 so at least 19 years ago. I support the practice either way but there’s no way Shopify thought of this

[@abcqer555]

Because it required a "crap ton" of code... Lol

[@adrians.7489]

I don’t get it.

[@karm7423]

I think what rather than a fixed base and benefits (e.g. $50k base, $10k bonus, $5k benefits, totaling $65k total comp), you get to allocate your total compensation ($65k) in whatever way you want in cash, equity and benefits

[@dimitridoes7936]

... same as earlier comment, with remark that if you allow people to allocate a lot to equity, you might undermine legally required minimum salary (i.e. employee protection)

[@MrSyous13]

​@@dimitridoes7936Just has to be specified that the person is being paid in equity, no? Don't think payment needs to necessarily be cash

[@joaoph9391]

Tô simplify... They let you choose if you want just salary(cash) or a smaller salary + some stocks or a bunch of stocks + very small salary. Some countries have laws about how much % of your income has to come from salary compared to stocks, bonus, retirement or other benefits. Most companies have somewhat of a standard (at least for entry level positions) with maybe 2 or 3 options. It all depends on your tax and investing strategies.

[@superheaton]

The pain was felt vicariously through the sw engineers and teams

[@patienceisalpha]

Netflix also does this.

[@ghdshds1899]

Shopify has been doing this for ages, way before Netflix

[@danh5637]

Surely take it all in stock and borrow against it tax free as a loan? 🤷‍♂️

[@nanolog522]

That doesn’t work. The loan you could get is probably just along twenty percent of the stock value, if even that, which means you waste most of your equity as securities for your loan. Then, you also owe income tax for those shares, at least in the US, and you also have to consider interest on those loans. Essentially, it’s a losing game unless you are so rich you can live with having just a couple percent of your income be available to you.

[@danh5637]

@@nanolog522 you’d only get 30-50% if it was a risky stock. They’re fairly well established so in all likelihood you would get 70%. And aside from that you would only pay tax when you cash out as capital gains tax. And in USA there is no direct income tax on holding shares.

[@Satook]

“We pay people different” then elaborates that “it’s illegal in most countries”. Ah-huh. Give people decisions to make about their salary split where the higher ups have 10x more insight over when and how different metrics will land and can decide what info is shared with the employees ahead of their decision… Probably why it’s “mostly” illegal.

[@nanolog522]

It was illegal in Europe since equity works differently there, not because it was so complicated or extortionate. It’s just that stock options are more strictly controlled in Europe, because there are stronger labour laws. Specifically, it is problematic if part of your salary is provided in stock options that are restricted for some time, because then, technically, the company could just pay out part of their salaries as equity, knowing that they could become worthless after a while, which would result in their employees being underpaid. The rest of your argument is pointless. What is the problem with allowing the employees to decide themselves?

[@GRABA85]

When you work at Shopify you need to allocate private time to study your own compensation it seems. Wow, fuck that.

[@Cal97g]

Shame the app sucks

[@user-xedwsg]

A nonsense. What benefit did this bring? Also, why does this guy sound like he's cosplaying being an american? 😂

[@BongShlong]

How many languages do you speak. What have you achieved?

[@Smith-un5wh]

Because of lot of people don’t want stock so they can have that money instead of investing it

[@user-xedwsg]

@@BongShlong sorry junior..

[@joaoph9391]

Some people want cash now, some want big bonus later, some want retirement, some want stocks, some want great health insurance, some want..... Most places (for a standard employee) only give you 2 or 3 options

[@nanolog522]

@@user-xedwsgBecause he’s a German that lives in the US and presumably had a lot of American English influence his own accent. Why do you sound like you are cosplaying someone who has a clue about company policy?