Going Part Time & Benefits

[Steeze]

For those of you who stepped back and took a less than full time role with your employer, how were your benefits adjusted?

Curious how Medical / 401k / Vacation Days / Salary were adjusted.


For context I am currently working 25-30 hrs / week (20 salaried + hourly after 20), maintained medical & 401k, salary is pro-rated, but Vacation days are being negotiated (I suggested same # of days at half day rate, they were expecting to axe them altogether). They axed my other fringe benefits like cell phone & travel allowance. The expectation is that I will get off the medical plan sooner than later when DW gets a job, I would have to maintain 30/wk min. to stay on the medical by law. For legal / insurance reasons I have to be a W2 employee and cannot be an outside consultant.

[shuffler]

I'm 60% (3d/wk).  Also WFH.

Salary - Pro-rated.
Bonus - Pro-rated.
Vacation - Pro-rated.
Newly Granted Stock Awards - Pro-Rated.
Previously granted Stock Awards from when I was 100% - Full/regular vesting schedule.
Medical - Full.
401k - Full.
ESPP - Full.
Other fringe benefits like gym & things - Full.

It's worth noting that though the Vacation benefit is pro-rated, it hardly matters.  I have 4 day weekends every week.  I have much less need for vacation now.  Ex:  I hiked a PCT section, took a day to recover, and fit that all in a weekend.  It's only if I have longer travel that I use actual vacation.

[JupiterGreen]

I'm 60% (3d/wk).  Also WFH.

Salary - Pro-rated.
Bonus - Pro-rated.
Vacation - Pro-rated.
Newly Granted Stock Awards - Pro-Rated.
Previously granted Stock Awards from when I was 100% - Full/regular vesting schedule.
Medical - Full.
401k - Full.
ESPP - Full.
Other fringe benefits like gym & things - Full.

It's worth noting that though the Vacation benefit is pro-rated, it hardly matters.  I have 4 day weekends every week.  I have much less need for vacation now.  Ex:  I hiked a PCT section, took a day to recover, and fit that all in a weekend.  It's only if I have longer travel that I use actual vacation.

This sounds perfect. Do you live in a state with a strong ACA? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe employers in those states are incentivized to offer health insurance to part-timers. I don't live in such a state, but I will be relocating to one.

[seattlecyclone]

This is something that most companies of any significant size will have standardized in terms of policy to try and keep things fair for everyone. I did 60% time for a while, had a similar deal to what @shuffler got, except my stock compensation from prior grants was prorated in the vesting rate. I can confirm vacation days were much less of an issue with a long weekend every week; I accumulated quite a few by the time I quit that job. It hardly made sense to just take the occasional day here or there anymore, it was more for week-long things.

[Steeze]

@seattlecyclone  & @shuffler - For the vacation days that are pro-rated, are they giving you same # of days but at a lower (60%) rate for each day?

[seattlecyclone]

Yeah it's a pro-rated number of days. So if you got three weeks at full-time you're still getting three weeks at part-time but now that means you accrue 9 days over the course of the year instead of 15, for example.

[shuffler]

...

This sounds perfect. Do you live in a state with a strong ACA? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe employers in those states are incentivized to offer health insurance to part-timers. I don't live in such a state, but I will be relocating to one.

Yep.  Good ACA state here.
Though I don't know about how that might affect employer incentives.

[Steeze]

Ok got it - I guess I am getting tripped up because I am working 5 days a week still, just less hours per day, usually 5-6 hours. You are working less days, but a day is still a whole 8-hour day.

[shuffler]

Yeah it's a pro-rated number of days. So if you got three weeks at full-time you're still getting three weeks at part-time but now that means you accrue 9 days over the course of the year instead of 15, for example.

Same.
I accrue at 60%, but I also only need to spend 3d (as opposed to 5d) if I want to get a calendar-week off.

So it works out to the same number of calendar-weeks of vacation.  But like I said above, I have much less need to spend vacation in 1 or 2-day increments, since I get 4 day weekends all the time.  So my vacation tends to accrue until I travel somewhere for a longer 3-5 week trip.

[shuffler]

Ok got it - I guess I am getting tripped up because I am working 5 days a week still, just less hours per day, usually 5-6 hours. You are working less days, but a day is still a whole 8-hour day.

Yep.  I work Mon-Wed.  I'm off every Thu-Sun.  Today is my Friday.  ;^)

(I get Monday-holidays off too.  As if this deal wasn't ridiculously good enough already.)

[joemandadman189]

I believe our policy is 30 hours per week to maintain health insurance and 20 hours per week to get 401k match
vacation is prorated

[engineerjourney]

Our company's sucked even more before but now its:

29 hours/week max (due to ACA laws)
No PTO, no holidays, no benefits (including ones you didnt pay for like short/long term disability)
Only benefit that stayed - 401k access and match

Its pretty crappy compared to what some companies offer but its better than working full time to me! They are also "doing studies" on offering a policy where you could get benefits, etc... we will see if they come through that.  I get med stuff under my husband anyway but for others having benefits is a deal breaker. 

[Sandi_k]

@seattlecyclone  & @shuffler - For the vacation days that are pro-rated, are they giving you same # of days but at a lower (60%) rate for each day?

The pro-rata calcs are normal at every employer I've ever had. So 25 hours per week is 25/40 = 62.50% work, so it's 62.50% x FT vacation and sick leave accruals.

Don't you have an employee handbook? Or website? Ours spells out the calculation very clearly for those who are PT.

[rab-bit]

I'm 60% (3d/wk).  Also WFH.

Salary - Pro-rated.
Bonus - Pro-rated.
Vacation - Pro-rated.
Newly Granted Stock Awards - Pro-Rated.
Previously granted Stock Awards from when I was 100% - Full/regular vesting schedule.
Medical - Full.
401k - Full.
ESPP - Full.
Other fringe benefits like gym & things - Full.

It's worth noting that though the Vacation benefit is pro-rated, it hardly matters.  I have 4 day weekends every week.  I have much less need for vacation now.  Ex:  I hiked a PCT section, took a day to recover, and fit that all in a weekend.  It's only if I have longer travel that I use actual vacation.

I am also 60% (3 days/week) and my benefits are the same as above except that some (e.g., stock awards, ESPP) are not applicable because my employer is a university. Part-timers at my (out-of-state) employer get benefits if they work 50% of full-time or more.

[Villanelle]

Ok got it - I guess I am getting tripped up because I am working 5 days a week still, just less hours per day, usually 5-6 hours. You are working less days, but a day is still a whole 8-hour day.

Is your vacation calculated in days or hours?  Back when I decreased hours with an employer, it was all calculated in hours.  If I got 3 weeks of vacation time in a year, that was actually 15 days or 120 hours.  When I dropped to 80% FTE, I got 80% of that, or 96 hours.  (It was actually a set # of hours per pay period, but that what it was over the course of a year.)  As others said, I felt like I came out ahead because things that might have caused me to take a day off before could be done on my non-working day.  And things that might have caused me to take a half-day (4 hours when FTE) often didn't require me to take any time.  I see that you still work 5 days/week.  Is that flexible at all?  If you want to take a Friday off, can you just work a couple extra hours on the other work days so you have the free day without taking vacation? 

My 403b match stayed the same as a % of salary, but of course because my salary was lower, so was the match.  (I actually moved to a different role entirely, which payed more per hour, but I worked fewer hours, so the match ended up being about the same, but that was only due to the raise.)

[Steeze]

@seattlecyclone  & @shuffler - For the vacation days that are pro-rated, are they giving you same # of days but at a lower (60%) rate for each day?

The pro-rata calcs are normal at every employer I've ever had. So 25 hours per week is 25/40 = 62.50% work, so it's 62.50% x FT vacation and sick leave accruals.

Don't you have an employee handbook? Or website? Ours spells out the calculation very clearly for those who are PT.

No handbook, it is a small firm, only a couple dozen people. HR is the accountant who is the owner’s wife etc, etc.

[Steeze]

Also, no idea how the vacation is calculated. Seems like it is in days accrued per pay period? I just keep my own notes and use up my days by the end of the year.

I’m just going to suggest we pro-rate

Days per year / 2080 = days per hour x hours worked = pro-rated days

Where 2080 = 52x40

[ixtap]

When DH originally went part time, the 401k match and ESPP were the only benefits. But they had were losing so many workers that said they would consider part time that they changed the rules the following year. Now he has all of the benefits except charity matching grant (and adoption reimbursement, not that we ever used that one). Annual bonus was not on the list, so I guess we will find that out in November. The.change also ended up resetting his vesting schedule, so he will go for a little over a year with no RSUs vesting, but he didn't actually lose any. He just didn't get a new grant on the original system.

We never did get COBRA fully sorted out until after they had reinstated the health insurance benefit. What a mess that was!

[Car Jack]

My wife was working as a nurse per diem with a minimum number of hours per month.  No benefits offered.  She's now retired but was looking for a way to do low hours and get benefits as I retire next month.  Trader Joes offers benefits with 14 hours a week.  Good luck getting a job there, though.  They have more people looking than open jobs.

[SpareChange]

I'm hourly. I went from 40 to 20hrs/wk. Pay, PTO, and 403B rates stayed the same. So, I can earn extra PTO if I work extra shifts etc. As with others, my PTO bank has continued to swell...up to 82 days now. I kept access to the the ST disability option, but lost the LT one. Premium for same health insurance plan more than doubled, from ~16 to ~45 per biweekly paycheck.