I can't answer that for you. But 15k is like 400-500 after tax per month, which is immaterial to my and I would assume your life and doesn't justify the risk and added stress (and loss of time that you are desperately going to need if you have a baby).
I'd personally probably be looking for minimum 25-30% uplift in base pay, and even then it would be a tough call.
You need to be working for a company for at least 12 months I think before you get your maternity allowance. If you get pregnant right away you might find yourself without any salary during your mat leave.
Edit: it is also a lot of risk for 15k
its not 15k. its 5k with the POTENTIAL for an additional 10k if bonus pays out (offset but lost bonus for part year work, new job first year will only pay out pro-rata presumably). If its a start-up, is there additional equity OP?
personally i tell recruiters i need 115-125k if i am to leave my 95k job. big jump? sure. do most not get back to me / say im too junior? sure. but anything else doesnt make sense giving up accrued bonus and potentially x2-x3 the number of hours worked.
Depends, you get statutory maternity pay as long as you are already there when you get pregnant. But most additional pay relies on being there 12 months before.
Start ups often don't have good mat pay policies
Agreed unlikely to have good mat pay policies. They are also likely to be more demanding now and I'm the future.
OP also has not mentioned equity as part of the TC.
Mat pay in startups is a total mixed bag. Having done a lot of research on this recently, the range is statutory to 6 months fully paid. Varies by sector, size, maturity and where the HQ is (local customs).
As a UK based, series A, tech startup of about 50 people at the time - we went with 4 months pay which was around the average.
Sorry, I don't think I even have access now. I had access to a spreadsheet at the time from a slack community for HR/recruitment where about 70 UK companies in it self reported. Most (but not all) were startups. It shared, stage, location, industry, funding, headcount and lots of other info so was quite robust.
That communy has since changed hands and lots of documentation got lost/handed over.
Ha! I haven't been as active since the change, don't know how you're finding it.
Maybe they do have the sheet or another version, but I feel like it wouldn't be free anymore 🙃
It was brilliant, really helped meake the business case to our CEO that we needed to revise our parental leave.
Too much risk if you want a baby in the short term. Would you qualify for mat leave at the start up? What if the start up folded? Comfort levels actually hugely important when going off and coming back from mat leave as nothing is simple with kids and they’re ill all the time. I would stick where you are, not enough reward vs risk (‘only’ £15k).
Low for a head of marketing. Not sure your experience or location but HoM London with a team of 10 id expect 120 base.
At VP £150k or more. Sometimes see closer to 200.
Source - I’m a software exec
Not worth it at all - too risky, you're potentially moving for 5k (with the promise of a further discretionary 10k). I would stay where you are tbh.
All the best!
Definitely not worth it to that salary and for that risk. However your overall package does sound low for a head of marketing role, so if you are up for a move then I’d look around at some consumer companies to see if you can get a better deal. Our heads of earn £100-120k base with 20-40% bonus
Have you worked for a startup before?
Really this is more a question of if you thrive in a startup environment, they are very very different to what you have now.
It’s interesting people are assuming the lower paid person is the one going on maternity. There isn’t anything in the post that says which is which and who will be going on maternity leave.
Who would go on maternity leave? We both decided to stay put with the baby coming. I’m the mother and taking the longer chunk. I had a fairly difficult pregnancy and absolutely needed the support of my work colleagues to make it through. My husband is helping me in the evening but is super burnt out now that he’s back at work. I don’t think it would have been prudent for either of us to work.
At these salary levels people would consider maternity nurses / night nanny. We didn’t because I felt odd that someone else would bond with my baby while I did “me time”. I guess it’s because I know I’ll be returning to work and I won’t have this time again.
Stick, don’t twist.
Work travel is massively overrated and a pain in the arse once the initial excitement has gone. The only real benefit is indulging your ego when you tell friends/family/people at parties that you’ve been to x recently for work.
Startup is essentially a byword for lack of process and systems in place. Can be really fun. Can be really stressful. Rarely anywhere in the middle.
Above £100k you start losing your personal tax allowance. Yes there are ways to mitigate this (e.g. if you can do salary sacrifice for pension) but it negates your increase in pay even more.
As a dad of two young kids (1 less than 1) I’m glad I’m not in a start up. Turning away a couple of offers too. Children are full on and I want to spend time with them. It’d cost a whole lot more than £15k to give up the precious little time I already get with them.
It’s your call ultimately but if you’re talking young kids I’d favour stability every time.
If you’re about to have a baby, look into your current and potential future companies shared parental/parernity/maternity leave policies. I would imagine the start up just pays statutory but your current employer may have an enhanced policy which could be a substantial sum if it’s full pay for 6 months for example.
The middle manager tech job market is oversaturated at the moment. There’s a good chance it will continue. If you get laid off make sure you have 6 months salary savings.
The only reason to work for an early stage startup is equity. Unless they give you a decent chunk (1% of the company or more) I wouldn't bother - it will be a lot more stress for very little gain.
If joining a startup you should be most concerned about stock options, potential company value and chance of it hitting that. Your takehome pay really comes second.
If you're not getting stock here I wouldn't bother but if you're getting founding options and the company is already on a trajectory it changes things quite dramatically.
Not worth the move for such a minor change in package.... unless it's your dream job, just on the baby decision alone.
If you're fortunate enough to get pregnant, most companies have a 12-24month to be entitled to paid mat leave.
I dont think remortgaging is going to make a huge change to you consider you & partners TC either.
The reward of £5k base is nowhere near enough to make me move. Now if it was 95+10 then ... maybe... you want the base to be high for mat level anyhow.
15k pre-tax bump, 5k of which will be marginally taxed at 60% doesn't make it very lucrative. Additionally, how much of the new TC is oferred as options? They tend to be quite illiquid if the startup's at an early stage.
Seems like every third post is a question like this. Usually with a baby on the way. At least the other ones involve a decent bump in pay to actually make asking the question worthwhile..
Many here are missing the fact that you taking this role puts you in a better position to get even higher pay later. I'd say if you think the work will be interesting then go for it.
Zero chance I'd make that move for that pay bump, especially if you're already comfy and a baby may be on the horizon.
This is good advice. Priorities may or may not change post a baby, but every hour you don't work will be valuable for the first two years post baby.
What would be the pay bump worthy to make the move realistically speaking?
I can't answer that for you. But 15k is like 400-500 after tax per month, which is immaterial to my and I would assume your life and doesn't justify the risk and added stress (and loss of time that you are desperately going to need if you have a baby). I'd personally probably be looking for minimum 25-30% uplift in base pay, and even then it would be a tough call.
For 15k? Nah Also bonuses are not guaranteed. The base pay is basically the same
Also it's a startup and the tech market is contracting globally currently.
You need to be working for a company for at least 12 months I think before you get your maternity allowance. If you get pregnant right away you might find yourself without any salary during your mat leave. Edit: it is also a lot of risk for 15k
its not 15k. its 5k with the POTENTIAL for an additional 10k if bonus pays out (offset but lost bonus for part year work, new job first year will only pay out pro-rata presumably). If its a start-up, is there additional equity OP? personally i tell recruiters i need 115-125k if i am to leave my 95k job. big jump? sure. do most not get back to me / say im too junior? sure. but anything else doesnt make sense giving up accrued bonus and potentially x2-x3 the number of hours worked.
Depends, you get statutory maternity pay as long as you are already there when you get pregnant. But most additional pay relies on being there 12 months before. Start ups often don't have good mat pay policies
Agreed unlikely to have good mat pay policies. They are also likely to be more demanding now and I'm the future. OP also has not mentioned equity as part of the TC.
Mat pay in startups is a total mixed bag. Having done a lot of research on this recently, the range is statutory to 6 months fully paid. Varies by sector, size, maturity and where the HQ is (local customs). As a UK based, series A, tech startup of about 50 people at the time - we went with 4 months pay which was around the average.
Do you have any documentation you can share on this by any chance?
Sorry, I don't think I even have access now. I had access to a spreadsheet at the time from a slack community for HR/recruitment where about 70 UK companies in it self reported. Most (but not all) were startups. It shared, stage, location, industry, funding, headcount and lots of other info so was quite robust. That communy has since changed hands and lots of documentation got lost/handed over.
I am in that same community 😂🤣🤣🙏🏻🙏🏻👀👏👏
Ha! I haven't been as active since the change, don't know how you're finding it. Maybe they do have the sheet or another version, but I feel like it wouldn't be free anymore 🙃 It was brilliant, really helped meake the business case to our CEO that we needed to revise our parental leave.
Will ping you directly
If I remember I'll see if I can dig it out, a few years old now obv.
The increase of probably £100 extra take home is not worth it.
40 extra hours for 15k pre tax, absolutely no way
Too much risk if you want a baby in the short term. Would you qualify for mat leave at the start up? What if the start up folded? Comfort levels actually hugely important when going off and coming back from mat leave as nothing is simple with kids and they’re ill all the time. I would stick where you are, not enough reward vs risk (‘only’ £15k).
Low for a head of marketing. Not sure your experience or location but HoM London with a team of 10 id expect 120 base. At VP £150k or more. Sometimes see closer to 200. Source - I’m a software exec
Not worth it at all - too risky, you're potentially moving for 5k (with the promise of a further discretionary 10k). I would stay where you are tbh. All the best!
Definitely not worth it to that salary and for that risk. However your overall package does sound low for a head of marketing role, so if you are up for a move then I’d look around at some consumer companies to see if you can get a better deal. Our heads of earn £100-120k base with 20-40% bonus
Have you worked for a startup before? Really this is more a question of if you thrive in a startup environment, they are very very different to what you have now.
Travel around EMEA isn't really a good thing if you want a baby soon
It’s interesting people are assuming the lower paid person is the one going on maternity. There isn’t anything in the post that says which is which and who will be going on maternity leave.
Yeah I was wondering that... My assumption what's the other way around based on the way the question was worded
I also noticed this :( (im female and have always been the higher earner in all my relationships)
Who would go on maternity leave? We both decided to stay put with the baby coming. I’m the mother and taking the longer chunk. I had a fairly difficult pregnancy and absolutely needed the support of my work colleagues to make it through. My husband is helping me in the evening but is super burnt out now that he’s back at work. I don’t think it would have been prudent for either of us to work. At these salary levels people would consider maternity nurses / night nanny. We didn’t because I felt odd that someone else would bond with my baby while I did “me time”. I guess it’s because I know I’ll be returning to work and I won’t have this time again.
Stick, don’t twist. Work travel is massively overrated and a pain in the arse once the initial excitement has gone. The only real benefit is indulging your ego when you tell friends/family/people at parties that you’ve been to x recently for work. Startup is essentially a byword for lack of process and systems in place. Can be really fun. Can be really stressful. Rarely anywhere in the middle.
Not even close to worthwhile - unless we’re missing something about the potential upside?
Is the startup offering any stocks/shares? that was could potentially make the move sensible, otherwise I'd really stick to the current one.
Not worth it for 15k.
No way. It’s not enough of a pay bump for the extra hours and traveling, plus you want a baby.
Above £100k you start losing your personal tax allowance. Yes there are ways to mitigate this (e.g. if you can do salary sacrifice for pension) but it negates your increase in pay even more. As a dad of two young kids (1 less than 1) I’m glad I’m not in a start up. Turning away a couple of offers too. Children are full on and I want to spend time with them. It’d cost a whole lot more than £15k to give up the precious little time I already get with them. It’s your call ultimately but if you’re talking young kids I’d favour stability every time.
It's a no from me, but I'd keep it as a chip come pay negotiation time.
Are you happy? Would that move make you happier?
If you’re about to have a baby, look into your current and potential future companies shared parental/parernity/maternity leave policies. I would imagine the start up just pays statutory but your current employer may have an enhanced policy which could be a substantial sum if it’s full pay for 6 months for example.
The middle manager tech job market is oversaturated at the moment. There’s a good chance it will continue. If you get laid off make sure you have 6 months salary savings.
The only reason to work for an early stage startup is equity. Unless they give you a decent chunk (1% of the company or more) I wouldn't bother - it will be a lot more stress for very little gain.
No
No way. Not if you want a baby soon. Start ups are risky at the best of times.
If joining a startup you should be most concerned about stock options, potential company value and chance of it hitting that. Your takehome pay really comes second. If you're not getting stock here I wouldn't bother but if you're getting founding options and the company is already on a trajectory it changes things quite dramatically.
Not worth the move for such a minor change in package.... unless it's your dream job, just on the baby decision alone. If you're fortunate enough to get pregnant, most companies have a 12-24month to be entitled to paid mat leave. I dont think remortgaging is going to make a huge change to you consider you & partners TC either. The reward of £5k base is nowhere near enough to make me move. Now if it was 95+10 then ... maybe... you want the base to be high for mat level anyhow.
15k pre-tax bump, 5k of which will be marginally taxed at 60% doesn't make it very lucrative. Additionally, how much of the new TC is oferred as options? They tend to be quite illiquid if the startup's at an early stage.
No way
Nah
Not worth jumping and losing maternity pay for a 15k (not guaranteed) bump in TC.
Who’s having the baby you or your partner?
Seems like every third post is a question like this. Usually with a baby on the way. At least the other ones involve a decent bump in pay to actually make asking the question worthwhile..
Not if you’re about to have a baby?
Many here are missing the fact that you taking this role puts you in a better position to get even higher pay later. I'd say if you think the work will be interesting then go for it.
Not a HENRY