The Hidden Cost of Replacing You at Work, with “Money with Katie” host Katie Gatti Tassin

Afford Anything

#620: You probably think your value to your employer equals your paycheck. Katie Gatti Tassin has news for you — you're worth way more than that.

The host of "Money with Katie" recently joined us to break down a framework that could change how you negotiate forever. Her formula is simple: Your worth equals your market rate plus what it costs to replace you, raised to the power of your unique skills.

Most people focus only on market rate — what similar jobs pay in your area. You can find this through salary transparency laws, LinkedIn data, or job postings. But that's just the starting point.

The real eye-opener? Replacement costs. When you leave, companies face recruiting fees, interview time, onboarding expenses, and lost productivity. For mid-level roles, recruiters charge 15 to 25 percent of your first-year salary. Senior positions cost even more — headhunters for executive roles charge 25 to 35 percent of total compensation.

A company replacing an $80,000 employee might pay $20,000 just in recruiter fees. For a $200,000 executive, that jumps to $70,000. Add training time and the productivity gap while they search, and replacement costs can hit 50 to 200 percent of annual salary.

Then there's your "special sauce" — the unique value you bring. Maybe you have deep client relationships, specialized skills, or institutional knowledge that would take months for a replacement to develop.

Katie learned this framework through her own career pivots. She started as an ad copywriter but shifted into user experience writing after working closely with a UX designer who told her the pay was much better. That internal pivot positioned her for an external move that doubled her compensation from $70,000 to $140,000.

Katie had to catch a flight — she visited our New York studios during her book launch tour — but the conversation covers practical tactics for earning more and building wealth.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode620

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