---
title: Compensation
sidebar: Handbook
showTitle: true
---

## How it Works

As we are a small (but growing!) startup, we've kept compensation simple.

You can use our calculator below to work out what your salary would be for a few example roles:

<CompensationCalculator />

We think the fastest possible shipping comes from a leaner, stronger team, so we try to pay top of market. We pay well, so you'll work with the best people in the world.

Important:

-   If we are missing your country, it simply means we've not hired there before so we'd need to put together some data in advance of hiring you.
-   If you're considering applying to PostHog and the salary is the only blocker, then something is wrong with our model (as we aim to pay around the top of the market) for your circumstances in most cases. Please tell us as part of the hiring process and we will review things.

For hiring into executive roles, we usually use a separate database of compensation benchmarks rather than this calculator. The terms of access to this database means that we're unfortunately not able to share it publicly.

### San Francisco Benchmark

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Our benchmark for each role we are hiring for is based on the market rate in San Francisco. We use a number of difference sources to gather salary data, this includes [Payscale](https://www.payscale.com/), [salary.com](https://www.salary.com/), reported salary on Glassdoor and LinkedIn, and other available sources. We try to have a data set that is as big as possible to reduce the margin for error and add a 1.2x multiplier to the median salary. 

As the market often changes quickly, we aim to update our benchmark every 6 months. 

### Location factor

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Most of our location factors are based on GitLab's location factors. GitLab uses a combination of data from Economic Research Institute (ERI), Numbeo, Comptryx, Radford, Robert Half, and Dice to calculate what a fair market rate is for each location. [Read more](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation/compensation-calculator/#calculating-location-factors) on how GitLab calculates this location factor. 

In order to simplify location factors, we have added a floor at 0.5 globally, and 0.65 specifically for the US. This means nobody will have a location factor lower than 0.5. We are aware that this might lead to comparatively low number for certain areas in comparison to others, but this approach allows us to move fast now and adjust the location data later on, if needed. 

If your location isn't listed, we will create one for you based on Numbeo's data for the relative Cost Of Living with San Francisco.
​

### Level

More experience does not correlate with increased importance. Seniority is _not_ a title - we don't believe in having a huge hierarchy of roles, as everyone needs to feel like the owner of the company that they are.

We pay more experienced team members a greater amount since it is reasonable to expect this correlates with an increase in skill - being able to ship faster through less time having to work things out for the first time is valuable. Experienced hires can help upskill the less experienced hires on the team too. Team members who have less experience can see a steady increase in pay over time as they increase their experience and skill.

We believe at first increased skill comes from more time spent in the role. Over time, this judgement becomes more subjective and is instead based on the speed with which you can ship or help the team to ship, the quality of your prioritization and decision-making, as well as your technical approach.

### Steps

Within each level, we believe there's a place to have incremental steps to allow for more flexibility. We define these as follows:

- *Learning*: Starting to match expectations.
- *Established*: Matching expectations.
- *Thriving*: Exceeding expectations.
- *Expert*: Exceeding expectations consistently.

With exception of team members at the very beginning of their career, we hire into the *Established* step by default. This will give everyone the opportunity to be set up for success and leave enough room for salary increases, without the need to move up in seniority. 

The definition of what is needed to progress from one step to the next in more detail depends on your role. Ask your manager for detail of what you need to work on.

## Equity
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It’s important to us that all PostHog employees can feel invested in the company’s success. Every one of us plays a critical role in the business and deserves a share in the companies success as we grow. When employees perform well, they contribute to the business doing well, and therefore should share a part of the increased financial value of the business.

As part of your compensation, you will receive share options in the company with a standard 1-year cliff, 4-year vest. Broadly, the amount of options will depend on the Level as per the Experience Factor. We may change this policy from time to time depending on our rate of hiring - e.g. if we had a gap in hiring for an extended period, we would adjust this.

Whilst the terms of options for _any company_ could vary if we were ever acquired, we have set them up with the following key terms:

-   10 years to exercise your options in the event that you leave PostHog
-   Double trigger acceleration, which means if you are let go or forced to leave due to the company being acquired, you receive all of your options at that time
-   Vesting starts from your start date (not after a "probation period" or similar)

It can take time to approve options, as it requires a board meeting and company valuation. We can clarify the likely time frame at the time we're hiring you. In any case, you will not be disadvantaged as vesting will always start from when you joined PostHog.

## Relocating

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If you're planning on relocating permanently, your salary will be adjusted (up or down) to your new location.

If this represents an increase in pay, _we need to approve this change in advance_ - we cannot guarantee it is always possible, as our budgets may or may not allow it.
​

## Nomading

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If you plan on spending >4 months/year in a place different from your home base, that will be adjusted based on your location after 4 months.

For a trip with many destinations over a period of more than 4 months, the location factor will be located along the various places you intend to stay, averaged by the amount of time spent.

If you are uncertain about where you're travelling to in advance, and you are travelling for over 4 months, then we will keep your pay the same as when you departed. 4 months later, we will make a manual adjustment to edit your next pay amount based on the average of the previous 4 months. This will take place every 4 months until you are done travelling. If the adjustment would require reclaiming more than your entire pay amount (for example if you moved from one of the world's most expensive areas to one of the world's least inexpensive areas), then we will work with you on how quickly we reclaim it. Generally this would be over no more than the following 4 months. It is your responsibility if you take this approach to budget appropriately.
​
If this represents an increase in pay from however much you were _most recently_ paid, _we need to approve this change in advance_ - we cannot guarantee it is always possible, as our budgets may or may not allow it.

## Salary Adjustments, Raises, and Promotions

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We do not expect to do any salary raises, adjustments or promotions until July 2021, outside of role or location-based changes. After that, we will run a bi-annual review cycle to evaluate which Level and Step you are at.

## Exchange Rate

Unless there is a very good reason, you'll be paid in your local currency. This means that you know exactly how much you'll get every month. The rates are from [OpenRates](https://openrates.io/) and were taken on *1st January 2021*. Every year we'll update the rates on the 1st of January.

## Notice period

We are fully committed to ensuring that you are set up for success, but also understand that it may take some time to determine whether or not there is a long term fit between you and PostHog. 

During the first 3 months of your employment, you can choose to end your contract with 1 week's notice. If we chose to end your contract, PostHog will give you 4 weeks notice. In both scenarios, we expect you to handover your work to the team, but you won't have to work the rest of your notice period. 

Your manager is responsible for monitoring and specifically reviewing your performance throughout the probation period. If under-performance is a concern, or if there is any hesitation regarding the future at PostHog, this should be discussed immediately with you and your manager. 

## Severance

At PostHog, average performance gets a generous severance.

If PostHog decides to end your contract after the first 3 months of employment have been completed, we will give you 4 months' pay. It is likely we will ask you to stop working immediately. 

If the decision to leave is yours, then we just require 1 month of notice.

We have structured notice in this way as we believe it is in neither PostHog's nor your interest to lock you into a role that is no longer right for you due to financial considerations. This extended notice period only applies in the case of under-performance or a change in business needs - if your contract is terminated due to gross misconduct then you may be dismissed without notice. If this policy conflicts with the requirements of your local jurisdiction, then those local laws will take priority.

## Contracts

We currently operate our employment contracts in the two geographic regions where we have business entities: 

- United States of America
- United Kingdom

This means, if you live in one of those countries, you will be directly employed by PostHog as an employee in one of our entities.

If you live outside the US or the UK, we use [Deel](https://app.letsdeel.com/) as our international payroll provider. 

In most cases, you would be an independent contractor and you will invoice us monthly via Deel. Deel offers pretty much all countries and currencies. As a contractor, you will be responsible for your own taxes. 

In case contracting isn't an option, Deel also offers an Employer of Record service, so you would be employed by Deel on our behalf. However, you must have the independent right to work in the country of residence.

## Payroll

In the UK and for international contractors, we run payroll monthly, on of before the last working day of the month. 

In the US, we run payroll twice a month, on the 15th and on the last day of the month. 
