Hello. Welcome to the Small Business Law podcast. My name is Bradley Bailyn, and I am a small business attorney here in New York City. Today, I just wanted to remind you that there are ways to negotiate for a really good new employee whose salary demands you can’t quite meet at this time by offering things other than money.

People may start with a high base salary offer, but sometimes you can offer them things such as a higher position, which may involve some supervisory responsibilities and some new experiences that they didn’t plan to receive and that you didn’t plan to give them. But when you think about it, you may be able to make a new position for them that encompasses what you most need them to do, but also allows them to learn on the job.

Another thing that you can do is offer benefits. Sometimes there are benefits like health care that you’re able to make available or a pension where it costs you a little bit of money, but it costs them just as much of their own money. And so, you know, they may be getting $15000 of benefits, but it’s costing you $7500.

You may also be able to offer additional vacation time. There may be a standard amount that you give people. And you’ve got to be careful because you don’t want to create a situation where two people who have the same job are receiving vastly different benefits because you don’t want to be accused of discriminating.

You may be able to offer them a work from home situation. A lot of times people are willing to take a major pay cut in exchange for the ability to work from home. And if you can offer flexible hours, that’s another thing that really helps people. People might be like, “Well, I need to make a lot of money because I have to pay the babysitter. But if I can work, say, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. instead of 9:00 to 5:00, then I can pay the babysitter way less. And that allows me to work for less money.” It could also be that they’re required to purchase things for the job, such as a newer, faster computer, and you may be able to agree to just supply it for them and that may reduce their costs and change their budget and allow them to work for less money.

Lastly, you can offer an evaluation six months or a year down the road, at which point you will consider substantially raising their salary or increasing their responsibility. And if they do a good job, maybe you even want to offer some stock options, which can be really nice.

Stock options don’t need to fully vest for a few years. So if they don’t stick around, then you don’t have to worry they’re going to end up with shares of your company that they really shouldn’t have. You can structure the stock options in such a way that they really have to do a good job and earn those options. But nonetheless, that can really help make people more loyal to the company and want to stick around. And also not disclose your trade secrets.

You can also ask people what it is that might make the deal doable. You can suggest these things and then they may come up with something that I’m not even thinking of…

As my standard disclaimer, please don’t rely on anything that I’m saying in this video for your specific set of circumstances, because your circumstances may call for something entirely different. You need to consult with a competent attorney. If you have any questions, please email or give me a call. Don’t forget to Like, Subscribe and comment on this video or podcast, however you’re watching or hearing it. Thank you.