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> Most people need money to eat. I don't know if you can ever really have a fair negotiation with an employer when "the rent is due" is involved.

Your definition of "fair" is questionable.

If you're negotiating from a position where you've taken on debts and rent that you can't afford to pay, and time has run out to the point where you're desperate for a paycheck as soon as possible, that's unfortunate. But that's not the fault of the person you're negotiating for a job with. Exceptional cases aside, 95% of the time that's likely due to your own risk-taking, neglect, poor decision-making, or financial mismanagement. And you had a "fair" chance to not get into that situation to begin with.

But regardless of blame, it's certainly not the fault of the counterparty in your employment negotiations in that you're in that spot. Nor is it their responsibility. Nor should we want it to be! What kind of system would that be, exactly? A brutal one where many more people fall through the gaps than would otherwise. A much better system is the one we have, where people pay taxes, and do so at higher rates the more fortunate they are, and that tax money goes into programs like unemployment, which helps people in exceptional situations.

What's so unfair about this, exactly?

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Actually it's probably more 99.99% likely due to the family you're born in.

> What's so unfair about this, exactly?

We don't roll the same dices at birth.

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No one's saying we roll the same dice at birth. That doesn't mean that people who are so desperate that they can't risk negotiating a job offer are in that situation because of birth rather than decisions made subsequent to birth.
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If you’re an early employee at a startup, you almost certainly had other options for employment
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I don’t think you can assume this to be the case, especially outside of the Bay Area.

My first startup was one where I was hired because I was young and cheap. I could be paid in free lunches rather than 401k matching and decent healthcare plans.

Big companies often pay better salaries.

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There are plenty of people who would consider themselves extremely lucky to work at a startup, even for cheap. I know many older people working much worse jobs. I think it's fair to assume that most startup workers have other options, and that generally those options are worse.
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Could you imagine this perception you describe playing into being underpaid?

Your last sentence you’re saying it’s fair to make this assumption that most other jobs are worse.

So that means if a non-startup offered you a better pay package your assumption and bias might steer you away and take worse compensation to do the same job.

I ask you this question because I made a similar mistake in my youth. I took a pay and benefits cut for a startup because it sounded a lot more fun. 6 months later and the company was going under and I was out of a job.

There are also plenty of employees who just didn’t get a job offer elsewhere. When I took my first startup job I didn’t have a competing offer.

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I too have worked for startups that failed. And when I took those jobs, I had many thousands of alternative opportunities I could've taken instead that I considered to be worse, or at least not worth pursuing compared to the startup jobs. What's your point?
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