On 1/3/2013 12:08 AM, James Salsman wrote:
Leslie, the most frequent cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is
unanticipated medical expenses. If one of your family members faced
such unanticipated expenses, and you realized you could save them from
bankruptcy and perhaps even save their life by leaving the Foundation
and taking a job at market rate, would that not tend to sway your
idealism? Since any of your colleagues could face the same
circumstances, is it therefore not irresponsible instead to fail to
meet or exceed the local market rate for technical labor?
James, if you actually understood the dynamics involved here, you would
realize that this random general-interest factoid is more or less
irrelevant to your agenda. Paying market rate salaries is not what
protects employees from being overwhelmed by medical expenses. The type
of long-term or catastrophic medical event that generates a situation
like this can outstrip even the most generous salary.
What's actually relevant is the scope of medical coverage offered,
including for dependents. On that score, as reflected in what Matthew
shared earlier, my understanding is that the Wikimedia Foundation
provides benefits that meet or exceed those of just about any employer
it might be "competing" with. If we are actually losing any employees
over this specific reason, I would be very interested to hear about such
cases privately to see if we need to change our approach, and I'm sure
Sue and Garfield would be as well. (We might very well lose employees
dealing with personal scenarios of this nature, but I believe it's more
likely to be due to the impact of the situation on their time and energy
levels. In that case, we have no option but to acknowledge that they
have their priorities in the right order.)
--Michael Snow
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