Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dear Kate: Monthly or daily?

Dear Kate,

I'm a driver. My monthly pay is Rp 650,000. On top of that I get Rp 30,000 per day, "day" being defined as 7am to 7pm. Finally for each additional hour beyond that the boss pays me Rp 5,000. Occasionally, if I work at weekend, the daily rate becomes Rp 50,000 and hourly rate Rp 7,500. Don't ask me why this sounds so complicated. Ask the boss. What I know is that on average I get paid about Rp 1.5 million. I think that's because almost everyday my boss takes off late from office -- extra hourly pay for me.

Recently my boss offered me a raise. He asked me to choose between a Rp 100,000 raise on the monthly pay and Rp 5,000 raise on the daily pay. Any advice?

Complicated Driver @ Ciganjur

Dear Complicated Driver,

Mathematically they are the same. Both will end up a Rp 100,000 additional per month, assuming your boss works 5 days a week and stays home or drives himself on weekends. But if your boss is a workaholic and frequently asks you to drive him on weekends, than take the second offer. In contrast, you would take the first offer if the boss travels abroad frequently. Finally, if your boss' working behavior is quite random, definitely you should take the monthly based adjustment.

p/s I think I understand why he made it that complicated. Just ask yourself: do you like to shirk or not?

1 comment:

  1. dear complicated driver @ ciganjur,

    all else equal, i would suggest taking the monthly raise for at least two reasons:
    1. the additional Rp 100,000 will go straight to your bank account on a monthly basis, giving you a greater likelihood of saving it. daily top-ups are oftentimes too tempting for your brain.
    2. you can brag more easily to your fellow drivers about your salary (it's hard to brag when you have to spend sometime doing and explaining the math), and you know what? them knowing that your salary is bigger would easily serve as an additional dose of your daily happiness.

    good luck with your complicated bos,
    dumbfounded psychologist @ australia