On another topic, I’m reminded of some good greentext on someone transitioning and the boss going like “based, you’re a gal now. so, i’ll treat you as one by a paycut”.
the resulting comments basically were ppl talking whether it was more worthwhile to pay for someone’s mtf transition in full (with a paycut) or to not have a paycut. original post here
in short, assuming a €3,000/mo salary, with a paycut of -27%, it would be worth if HRT costs were about €97,200 or higher. And that’s if the employee in total will work/have worked there for 10 years minimum. But that’s a very simple calculation. Reality’s more complex. At the bottom’s the conclusion.
Medical costs
Tap for spoiler
more realistically though, assuming the following costs for 2025, and then taking the most expensive US-level prices:
full on vaginoplasty surgery; let’s say €15,000
full body laser, skin treatments: €10,000
jaw feminisation: €20,000
Then there are meds. Let’s assume a dystopia like the US where this isn’t free.
That could be €100/mo (let’s say starting at 20, ending at like 80. idk if that is the case but let’s assume that). at a rate of 3% inflation on average, barring spikes, that’s gonna cost €82,700 in total, rounded up).
But the median stay is about 5-15 years at their employer. So let’s say 10 years worth of meds as a starter. That’s 120*100^1.03 or €6,900 (rounded up).
You’d then be looking at a total cost of €45,000 for HRT during that period, assuming you did all the surgeries in the first year. If you did the surgeries in the last year, it’d be €52,200 rounded up.
Now onto the wages and living costs.
Tap for spoiler
Most women and minorities get discriminated and are often paid less, though. So let’s assume that. Let’s suppose the gross wage is €3,000.
After tax, that makes €2,400. Most of this helps you, eg nature maintenance, firefighters, medical workers, public services; those are cheaper with tax than without, because everyone contributes.
Now the landlord, and let’s be depressingly realistic; now you only have €1,000. (Greed, eh?). If you live in public housing, you’d have €1,800.
But anyway, groceries and energy; €700. Then utilities and extra shit: €500. That is what you are left with. So, your yearly costs are €25,000 in the first year.
This means that if you need an 'emergency “6 months” fund, you’d actually need to work for 3 years, to build it up (more, probably). All thanks to landlords and capitalism; under communism this would be far more affordable.
Let’s assume these costs rise with 3% each year. In total, over the 5 years you’d then have €161,183 worth of costs.
Paycut: The Proposed Deal
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So, how about a -25% paycut? Let’s assume your employer doesn’t do it instantly through your gross income – otherwise you’d end up losing €310/mo, meaning you’d not be able to survive at all unless if you had no greedy landlord. And an employer doesn’t want someone unable to work.
Instead, the deal is: you get to stay at your work for 5 years, but your boss doesn’t give you raises for 5 years. Let’s assume a raise is 3.5%.
This means you’d end up skipping the increases of €105, €108, €113, €116, and €121 per month, on that €3k/mo. That means you lose out on €49,788 in those five years, rounded to €50,000. You’d earn €150,000 instead of €200,000 in the last year, a paycut of about 25% in total.
Summary
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So… you’d have €45,000-52,200 of HRT fully covered, but you lose €50,000 in future salaries. In total you’d earn €150,000 in salary, but lose about €162,000 in living costs, an impending deficit of €12,000. So it’s not worth it, even if you did the surgeries in the end of the time period.
It’d be better to not take the bait, and instead have surgeries etc. ASAP while you have normal raises.
However, consider the next.
Say you had socialised housing (thanks, unions and worker-owned co-ops!). Instead of paying €2,500/mo to landlord rent, fossil energy bills, and groceries, you’d pay €1,700/mo or €20,400 in the first year. Then your living costs w/ inflation, are about €110,000 over five years (no deficit). With uncovered HRT on top of that, surgeries first year, that’d net €155,000 in costs. Assuming you had raises, you’d have a net positive of €45,000, because you earnt €200,000.
If you took the deal (no raises, but got HRT covered), you’d have the same net positive earnings. So in this case, it’s worth to have HRT covered, if only for the job security and because it means you can likely do all surgeries earlier.
Conclusion
It depends on how high your living costs are. If you are close to living paycheck to paycheck, then it ain’t worth it, unless if you already had a buffer of €12,000 before getting into that deal. Nor is it worth it if HRT already is covered in your country’s universally affordable healthcare.
But if the latter isn’t the case where you live, and your other costs of living are low, then “5 years job security, no raise, HRT covered” is a great deal.
This is why, if you live paycheck to paycheck, it matters to reduce costs of living. And for that: join a union, become a worker-owned co-op, vote left, strike and protest, be gay and do crimes.
On another topic, I’m reminded of some good greentext on someone transitioning and the boss going like “based, you’re a gal now. so, i’ll treat you as one by a paycut”.
the resulting comments basically were ppl talking whether it was more worthwhile to pay for someone’s mtf transition in full (with a paycut) or to not have a paycut. original post here
in short, assuming a €3,000/mo salary, with a paycut of -27%, it would be worth if HRT costs were about €97,200 or higher. And that’s if the employee in total will work/have worked there for 10 years minimum. But that’s a very simple calculation. Reality’s more complex. At the bottom’s the conclusion.
Medical costs
Tap for spoiler
more realistically though, assuming the following costs for 2025, and then taking the most expensive US-level prices:
Then there are meds. Let’s assume a dystopia like the US where this isn’t free. That could be €100/mo (let’s say starting at 20, ending at like 80. idk if that is the case but let’s assume that). at a rate of 3% inflation on average, barring spikes, that’s gonna cost €82,700 in total, rounded up).
But the median stay is about 5-15 years at their employer. So let’s say 10 years worth of meds as a starter. That’s 120*100^1.03 or €6,900 (rounded up).
You’d then be looking at a total cost of €45,000 for HRT during that period, assuming you did all the surgeries in the first year. If you did the surgeries in the last year, it’d be €52,200 rounded up.
Now onto the wages and living costs.
Tap for spoiler
Most women and minorities get discriminated and are often paid less, though. So let’s assume that. Let’s suppose the gross wage is €3,000.
After tax, that makes €2,400. Most of this helps you, eg nature maintenance, firefighters, medical workers, public services; those are cheaper with tax than without, because everyone contributes.
Now the landlord, and let’s be depressingly realistic; now you only have €1,000. (Greed, eh?). If you live in public housing, you’d have €1,800.
But anyway, groceries and energy; €700. Then utilities and extra shit: €500. That is what you are left with. So, your yearly costs are €25,000 in the first year.
This means that if you need an 'emergency “6 months” fund, you’d actually need to work for 3 years, to build it up (more, probably). All thanks to landlords and capitalism; under communism this would be far more affordable.
Let’s assume these costs rise with 3% each year. In total, over the 5 years you’d then have €161,183 worth of costs.
Paycut: The Proposed Deal
Tap for spoiler
So, how about a -25% paycut? Let’s assume your employer doesn’t do it instantly through your gross income – otherwise you’d end up losing €310/mo, meaning you’d not be able to survive at all unless if you had no greedy landlord. And an employer doesn’t want someone unable to work.
Instead, the deal is: you get to stay at your work for 5 years, but your boss doesn’t give you raises for 5 years. Let’s assume a raise is 3.5%.
This means you’d end up skipping the increases of €105, €108, €113, €116, and €121 per month, on that €3k/mo. That means you lose out on €49,788 in those five years, rounded to €50,000. You’d earn €150,000 instead of €200,000 in the last year, a paycut of about 25% in total.
Summary
Tap for spoiler
So… you’d have €45,000-52,200 of HRT fully covered, but you lose €50,000 in future salaries. In total you’d earn €150,000 in salary, but lose about €162,000 in living costs, an impending deficit of €12,000. So it’s not worth it, even if you did the surgeries in the end of the time period. It’d be better to not take the bait, and instead have surgeries etc. ASAP while you have normal raises.
However, consider the next.
Say you had socialised housing (thanks, unions and worker-owned co-ops!). Instead of paying €2,500/mo to landlord rent, fossil energy bills, and groceries, you’d pay €1,700/mo or €20,400 in the first year. Then your living costs w/ inflation, are about €110,000 over five years (no deficit). With uncovered HRT on top of that, surgeries first year, that’d net €155,000 in costs. Assuming you had raises, you’d have a net positive of €45,000, because you earnt €200,000.
If you took the deal (no raises, but got HRT covered), you’d have the same net positive earnings. So in this case, it’s worth to have HRT covered, if only for the job security and because it means you can likely do all surgeries earlier.
Conclusion
It depends on how high your living costs are. If you are close to living paycheck to paycheck, then it ain’t worth it, unless if you already had a buffer of €12,000 before getting into that deal. Nor is it worth it if HRT already is covered in your country’s universally affordable healthcare.
But if the latter isn’t the case where you live, and your other costs of living are low, then “5 years job security, no raise, HRT covered” is a great deal.
This is why, if you live paycheck to paycheck, it matters to reduce costs of living. And for that: join a union, become a worker-owned co-op, vote left, strike and protest, be gay and do crimes.