Supporting colleagues with children in an early sage startup

Question

Hey peps. We're an early stage startup of four people. One of us just got a baby. We we're surprised by the pregnancy, but cheerful. Now we're searching for a fair and supporting salary model. Any thoughts on that? (:

M Elizabeth Ingram · Answer

Salary shouldn't have any connection to whether people have children, but you could use LinkedIn or salary.com to get a sense of fair salaries in general.  Are you looking for thoughts on benefits to offer?  If so, you could consider incorporating a week of paid family leave (for all employees with FMLA qualifying events), a dependent care FSA (the organization would have to pay for the plan set up but it could save the employee on up front taxes for childcare costs), or voluntary benefits which wouldn't necessarily help the pregnant employee at this time but could help over time (accident policy, short term disability, life insurance) and would also be helpful to other employees at no cost to you.  If you have a health plan and want pay a portion of the dependent cost (across the board), you could do that too.

Gail Renfrow, PMP · Answer

I really appreciate how you are trying to consider fair salaries in your startup (especially one that is still relatively small), particularly for those starting families.  As another poster mentioned, you want to see market trends for job titles and make sure that you are in a fair range for your area.  If you are wanting to provide incentives for families (who will be much more loyal if they feel stability and work/life balance) consider paid family leave (for births and adoptions), good sick/vacation periods per year, and perhaps some Personal Floating Holidays (out of respect for people's mental and spiritual health).

Most of all - consider flexible scheduling.  Especially during the pandemic, parents are struggling.  If you encourage people to produce their work by their own schedules, they will feel much more capable of meeting expectations.  I know plenty of moms working 8-10, 2-4, and 6-10 because that's when their kids sleep.  Just keep checking in on when they are available (to set healthy expectations) and then let them do their thing.

Good luck!

Supporting colleagues with children in an early sage startup

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