When you’ve adopted Buffer for some time, then you recognize we now have a couple of unusual approaches to teammate advantages and compensation. The instance I’ll dig into right now is our “Dependent Grant,” which we launched in 2016.
Our Dependent Grant is separate profit, outdoors of wage, that we grant teammates who’re caring for and supporting relations. It’s an additional $3,000 USD per yr per little one, as much as 4 dependents complete. This has been certainly one of our most uncommon (and at occasions controversial) advantages.
Till just lately, this was granted for prolonged relations, like siblings, dad and mom, and grandparents. After eight years, we’ve up to date this profit. As all the time, we’re right here to share the total story.
Our new Dependent Stipend in 2025
Beginning this yr, we’ve determined to use our stipend to dependent youngsters, and not embrace companions or prolonged relations. It’s nonetheless a precedence to assist our teammates with younger kiddos, particularly throughout these uncommon weeks of work-related journey, reminiscent of Retreat week.
The dependent stipend will proceed to be a pillar in our community of advantages designed to assist our staff thrive in our distant work expertise. For instance, teammates usually apply this stipend to childcare reminiscent of daycare or a nanny, which permits them to work through the day. To cite from a teammate within the unique dialogue: “supporting dependent youngsters has a novel and direct impression on how Buffer teammates can interact with their work.” The aim was to strike this actual steadiness: generosity and assist for teammates because it pertains to work and our enterprise.
Past that, we really feel it’s a household alternative how a teammate’s household approaches work, childcare, and prolonged familial assist. If we had limitless earnings, we’d like to assist each teammate in a wide range of totally different monetary conditions, and actually this was the unique dream of this stipend again virtually 10 years in the past! Nevertheless, as a small enterprise, we now have to repeatedly discover the appropriate steadiness of generosity and pragmatism once we look at our finances, our priorities, and our selections.
That is how we’ll now outline a Dependent:
- Beneath 18 years of age
- Residing within the Buffer teammate’s house no less than among the time
- The Buffer teammate is certainly one of their major caregivers
- All different conditions on a case-by-case foundation
This adjustment ensures that the stipend is concentrated on supporting childcare-related wants, bolstering our dedication to serving to teammates thrive in a distant work setting. Whether or not it’s offsetting childcare prices throughout work hours or easing the burden throughout work journey (like retreat weeks), this stipend is now centered on providing sensible assist to teammates with younger households.
Beneath the brand new construction, we now have 59 dependents throughout 31 teammates who’re receiving assist, with a projected finances of $117,000 for the yr — a quantity that can doubtless develop as we welcome new Buffer infants or rent teammates with dependents all through 2025.
Once we reevaluated the profit in 2024, Buffer was supporting 99 dependents, together with:
- 59 youngsters
- 22 spouses/companions
- 15 dad and mom
- 2 siblings
- 1 grandparent
At $3,000 per dependent, this amounted to a complete of $297,000 per yr.
To be clear, whereas we all know this subject has monetary implications, our deep dive into the dependent stipend was pushed extra by the dedication to transparency and equity. For instance, transparency is missing on this subject; this stipend just isn’t included in our public salaries, and the idea of a dependent was being utilized otherwise throughout the staff.
Why we modified our Dependent Stipend
Late in 2024, we held a “Management Collaboration Week“, centered on taking a step again from the day-to-day enterprise and asking greater questions on our technique, tradition, or execution.
I introduced up our Dependent Stipend, and lots of teammates chimed in to unpack the cultural and monetary implications of providing this profit. (As with all matters that relate to cash, not everybody has the identical perspective, however I beloved that we have been capable of have a extremely open dialogue in regards to the subject.)
Right here’s a abstract of some components of the stipend that work properly for the Buffer staff:
- We love the thought of supporting working dad and mom. Typically, fashionable capitalism forces dad and mom to make powerful tradeoffs between work and household, and we wish to assist make these tradeoffs a bit bit simpler. (That is one motivation behind our four-day workweek as properly.)
- As a result of we’re absolutely distant, we periodically ask teammates to journey to a central location for coworking and bonding. When dad and mom journey for work, it requires lots of preparation and assist, a few of which incurs further prices, particularly associated to childcare.
- We attempt to be beneficiant with teammates, and we beloved attending to assist teammates who have been serving to out a member of the family going by a troublesome time and never capable of work.
- We’re a US-based firm, however we now have teammates all around the world. This stage of generosity supported a wide range of international cultures, a few of which have extra family-sharing than others.
Then again, listed here are the weather that felt a bit off in regards to the stipend:
- We’re meticulous about equity and transparency with regards to our wage method. This fund is separate from wage, and since we took a “no-questions-asked” strategy, we ended up with some huge disparities in how this was utilized throughout the staff, which felt out of line with our strategy to general compensation and advantages.
- It felt a bit off to offer more money to teammates whose spouses and companions selected to not work in distinction to these companions who did. I usually discovered myself twisted into logic puzzles on this one. For instance, a household with an at-home mum or dad usually didn’t pay for exterior childcare, however these have been the teammates whose spouses have been eligible for the grant. (In fact, the grant is a lot lower than childcare prices in a yr in most locations, however nonetheless.)
We mirrored on these components and the way we felt about them in gentle of Buffer’s Values and our compensation philosophy (which is to attempt to be clear, honest, beneficiant, and easy), and ended up with a brand new model of this grant for the long run.
Over to you!
When this profit was first launched in 2018, every Buffer teammate claimed a mean of 1.04 dependents. By 2020, that quantity had elevated to 1.2 dependents per teammate. In 2024, it had risen additional to 1.35 dependents per teammate — a mirrored image of how our staff’s lives and obligations have developed over time.
Considered one of Buffer’s core Working Rules is to prioritize long-term considering — constructing an organization that thrives for many years, embracing affected person progress, and planning forward for our trade and the world. This precept extends to our staff as properly: 54% of our present teammates have been with Buffer for 5 years or longer. As they’ve grown with us, so have the caregiving obligations for a lot of who’ve welcomed youngsters whereas at Buffer. Our dependent stipend has been a mirrored image of this dedication, evolving alongside our staff to supply significant assist at totally different levels of life.
As all the time, we’d love to listen to your ideas. Please share within the feedback under, or attain out on our social pages!
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