Nathoo: Founders must earn minimum wage to block employment lawsuits
Kirsty Nathoo · 20 VC 075: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Kirsty Nathoo, CFO @ Y Combinator · Sep 28, 2015 · at 19:39
Kirsty Nathoo, CFO of Y Combinator, explains why early-stage founders should set up official payroll and pay minimum wage rather than working for zero salary.
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“Everybody must be paid a minimum wage. Because again, we've seen issues in the past where founders are they break up, and it's not a happy you know, it's an acrimonious split, and the first thing that the departing founder does is go and talk to a lawyer, and the first thing the lawyer says is, well, how much have they paid you? And if the founder said, well, I haven't been earning any money. I haven't had any salary. Then the lawyer says, oh, well, we can go against them for employment claims. You know, you're entitled to the minimum wage. And so suddenly the company is, is under a, has all these problems around all these claims and,”
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