Benefits & Perks

Back to the Handbook

The table below outlines the benefits and perks available to Kit team members based on their location and role at Kit. Each benefit and perk is explained in detail below the table.

 

Profit Sharing

Available to: All Kit core team members

It’s very important to us that everyone on the core Kit team shares in the success of what we have built. We do that through profit sharing. Twice a year at the time of our team retreats core team members will receive a bonus based on the profitability of Kit impacted 25% for time with the company and 75% split equally for the previous six months. This change was a result of a company-wide DMF to decouple profit sharing from performance.

After setting aside funds for company taxes, savings, and charitable giving, the remaining money goes into a pool as profit for distribution. Currently the remainder is split – 52% of that is distributed to the team, 40% to the owners, and up to 8% to the leadership team based on the goals they hit.

The 52% in the profit sharing pool is distributed based on time with the company (which counts for 25%) and then split equally for the remaining 75%.

Profit sharing is impacted by time worked during the quarter, meaning we adjust for leaves of absence and part-time work schedules. Your profit sharing is calculated by taking your days in the work period period and dividing by the total days in the work period to get the percentage of time you worked during the profit sharing period. That’s the percentage of your profit sharing you will receive.

Profit sharing is not earned until it is paid. If your employment or contract with Kit ends before a profit sharing payment, you will not receive the payment.

For an overview of our compensation philosophy – and how profit sharing fits into the mix – read this post.

Like other benefits and policies, Kit reserves the right to interpret, apply and modify the profit sharing program.

 

Equipment Budget

Available to: US-based Kit core team members

Since the exact tools you’ll need to do your job vary, we’ve given you control to choose them for yourself. U.S.-based core team members receive an equipment budget of $4,000 upon joining the team and then $3,000 every two years after that.

We ask if you have a company (Brex) card, you use it for all equipment expenses. If you don’t have one yet, feel free to ask a member of the Ops team to make the purchase for you on their company card, or you can make the purchase on your personal card and submit the receipt for reimbursement by emailing a copy to reimbursements@kit.com.

In addition to the equipment budget, all U.S.-based, core team members receive $360 annually to offset monthly internet expenses. The $360 will be issued to you via a stipend in January of each year.

For Kit Studios team members, we provide on-site equipment as needed in lieu of an equipment budget.

 

Learning & Development

Available to: All Kit core team members

Learning & Development Budget – Kit provides every core team member with an annual budget of $3,500 (USD) towards tools and resources that develop your skills and foster your work-related learning. This budget does not roll over year to year but renews at the beginning of each calendar year. Expenses towards this budget can be incurred on your Brex card or invoiced for reimbursement. Receipts should be uploaded to your Brex card for clear record keeping. We ask that every team member manage their budget publicly in our shared Learning + Development tracker.

Examples of what you can spend your L&D budget on include books or classes you’ve identified, material identified by your manager, a role- or industry-specific conference, a certification or course related to your role, or something else your manager approves. You have the freedom to choose what and how you want to learn, and every purchase must be approved by your manager. We encourage you to work with your manager to loop them in on your growth goals.

If you’re planning to use your L&D budget towards a conference, please be sure to register for the conference and book your travel at least two months out to ensure you can secure reasonable flight prices and hotel accommodations.

 

Financial Wellness

Available to: All Kit team members

Retirement Plans – We offer a 401k plan to all U.S.-based core team members through Human Interest which allows you to save for retirement. It’s a mix of Vanguard funds which offer us the cheapest fees, and Kit will match up to 5% of your salary (this is contributed in a traditional 401k).

We offer both traditional 401ks (deductible now, pay taxes later) and Roth 401ks (pay taxes now, not later) to all U.S.-based core team members. It’s synced with Justworks so it automatically pulls it from your paycheck. Kit covers all additional fees except actual fund fees (which are minimal). If you haven’t already set this up you should. It takes less than five minutes to set up online and if you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table.

 

Leave & Time Off

Available to: All Kit team members

We understand that you may experience significant life changes or events during your time with Kit. As such, Kit offers its core team members a variety of leave options, which are described below.

Vacation Time – We believe in enjoying life outside of Kit, and every core team member gets four weeks of vacation (20 days) and every Kit Studios team member gets 2 weeks of vacation (10 days) annually.

You can request time off via Justworks after discussing with your supervisor or, if you’re an international core team member, please let your supervisor and the Ops team (#ops-team in Slack) know so they can track it. You can roll over up to four weeks of unused vacation from year to year.

We do allow your balance to go negative if needed, with the approval of your manager. We ask that you don’t have a negative vacation balance of more than 10 days with the goal of being out of the negative by the end of a calendar year. If you happen to leave Kit with a negative vacation balance, we’ll deduct the time used from your final paycheck.

Please also update your Google calendar for any time off so non-Justworks team members can see that you’re out.

Since we tend to have more vacations requested over the holidays, but we still have to support our customers, please schedule this no later than two months in advance.

Paid Paid Vacation – We believe in taking real breaks from work, and what better way than a vacation! To encourage this, we will give core team members a $1,000 after-tax bonus toward your vacation once per calendar year. To qualify, schedule at least three months in advance and take at least five vacation days in a row (it can be split on both sides of a weekend) and don’t check into work the entire time.

Holidays – Kit observes 10 paid holidays each year: New Years Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas.

International core team members may choose their 10 holidays each year in alignment with local holidays. Holidays must be submitted in advance, using the Leave Form.

For flexible observance amongst U.S.-team members, you may work the Kit-observed holiday and we’ll credit any hours worked back to you as vacation time. Please let the Ops team know if you do that, so they can adjust your vacation balance accordingly.

Sick Time and Mental Health + Wellbeing Time – We offer two weeks (80 hours for full-time and 40 hours for part-time core team members) of Sick Time. At the beginning of each calendar year, you will receive your Sick Time allotment that you can use throughout that year. Sick Time does not roll over from year to year.

Sick Time can be used when you get sick and need to take time to rest and recover, have a lengthy doctor’s appointment, or someone in your family is sick and needs you to care for them. We also encourage core team members to use this leave policy to care for their mental health and wellbeing. You can take mental health + wellbeing days in half days (4 hours) or full days (8 hours).

Be sure to notify your manager and enter the time you need in Justworks (if you’re U.S. based) or the Leave Form.

This policy is not for vacation, but vacation time can be used as sick time if you need it (if this becomes a consideration for you, talk to a member of the Ops Team to learn if your situation qualifies for Medical Leave).

Parental Leave – Kit provides paid Parental Leave to core and Kit Studios team members following the birth or adoption of a child.

Full-time team members:

• 12 full-time working weeks (480 hours) paid Parental Leave for parents

Part-time team members:

• 12 part-time working weeks (240 hours) paid Parental Leave for parents

We strongly encourage new parents to use three weeks of Parental Leave in a single block of time. The remaining Parental Leave can be taken flexibly. Parental Leave is available to core team members in the 12 months following the child’s birth or adoption, after which it expires. We encourage you to use any Sick or Vacation Time in conjunction with Parental Leave as you need; please know you can also request Unpaid Leave as well.

In situations where state leaves or FMLA are available, paid Parental Leave will run concurrently with leave provided under those statutes as applicable. Additionally, for core team members working in a jurisdiction where paid-leave benefits are provided by law, Kit will reduce the core team member’s salary by the state- or federal-provided benefit amount, so the core team member is paid their normal salary from the combination of the state- or federal-provided benefit and their Kit salary. Core team members should contact the Ops Team with any questions relating to Parental Leave.

Please work with your manager and the Ops Team to plan your offboarding and coverage during your leave period.

Medical Leave – For Kit core team members, we offer up to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of paid Medical Leave. For Kit Studios team members, if your state or city requires medical leave, we’ll offer it to you per their requirements. Otherwise, it isn’t a covered benefit. Medical leave is to be used if you become seriously ill or injured and are unable to work because of it (with the exception of occupational illnesses or injuries related to work or the workplace), or are caring for seriously ill or injured family members.

To be eligible for full Medical Leave benefits, a core team member must have worked at Kit for six months. Prior to reaching six months at Kit, core team members (both full- and part-time) are eligible for two weeks (80 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of Medical Leave. For purposes of this policy, “family members” includes, but is not limited to, immediate family members (including mothers, fathers, children, siblings, and grandparents), domestic partners, other household members who physically reside in the core team member’s home, a dependent child for whom the core team member has joint custody, or in-laws (including mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law). This policy is limited to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of paid leave per 12-month period. A 12-month period is measured going forward from the first date Medical Leave is taken.

A birthgiver can use up to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of Medical Leave for prenatal care or incapacity related to pregnancy, or for their own serious health needs following the birth of a child. Medical Leave resulting from pregnancy may be used in combination with Parental Leave. Every family’s pregnancy, or path to parenthood looks different. Medical Leave is intended to take care of you and your family when things don’t go as planned and your family’s health requires additional care, as determined by your medical professional (see below re: certification).

Be sure to communicate with your manager and the Ops Team to identify your Medical Leave needs along with your elected Parental Leave during and after your child arrives.

Please know Kit may request a certification from your healthcare provider to certify the medical necessity of your Medical Leave or to recertify the need for Medical Leave at regular intervals during your leave period.

Medical Leave for the care of another person is limited to a maximum of six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) in any 12-month period, and is subject to the same medical certification requirements that apply to a core team member’s own illness or injury.

In situations where state leaves or FMLA are available, paid Parental Leave will run concurrently with leave provided under those statutes as applicable. Additionally, for core team members working in a jurisdiction where paid-leave benefits are provided by law, Kit will reduce the core team member’s salary by the state- or federal-provided benefit amount, so the core team member is paid their normal salary from the combination of the state- or federal-provided benefit and their Kit salary. Core team members should contact the Ops Team with any questions relating to Medical Leave and state programs.

When to Use Medical Leave vs Sick Time – If you know you’ll need an extended period of time to care for your own serious medical condition or that of another person, please give advanced warning to your manager and the Ops Team. However, we know life happens. In instances where you may have started out using Sick Time, the transition to using Medical Leave will be as follows: Once the use of sick time extends to five consecutive working days or you identify that further time is needed, you should begin using Medical Leave and provide a certification from your healthcare provider certifying your medical need for leave.

Flexible Schedules/Return to Work – We also offer flexible schedules for up to a year from the birth or adoption of a child to help with the transition back to work. To take advantage of this, please coordinate with your manager or the Ops Team.

If you’re on our health insurance plans, there’s a strict deadline to include your new baby on your insurance plan – you must notify Justworks within 30 days of your child’s birth or placement.

Unpaid Leave – All Kit team members can request to take unpaid time if they prefer to not use Vacation, Sick Time, Medical Leave or Parental Leave for being out of the office. Any such leave needs to be approved in advance by Kit, but in general, we’re totally fine if you want to take this. Note: You cannot use Unpaid Leave for any of the five required days off for the Paid Paid Vacation bonus, but you can add Unpaid Leave on after those five days.

Bereavement Leave – For Kit core team members, we offer up to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of paid Bereavement Leave. For Kit Studios team members, if your state or city requires medical leave, we’ll offer it to you per their requirements. Otherwise, it isn’t a covered benefit. Bereavement leave is to be used for team members to grieve, arrange and attend a funeral and/or see to the affairs of the estate of a family member an individual of close relationship. These individuals include, but are not limited to, family members (as defined in the Medical Leave Policy).

To be eligible for full Bereavement Leave benefits, a core team member must have worked at Kit for six months. Prior to reaching six months at Kit, core team members (both full- and part-time) are eligible for two weeks (80 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of Bereavement Leave. You should request Bereavement Leave as soon as you learn of the death of a loved one. Bereavement Leave can be taken in one block of time or intermittently, as needed. Grief is not a straight line. If for any reason you need additional time, you may use available Vacation or Sick Time.

This policy is limited to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) of paid leave per 12-month period. A 12-month period is measured going forward from the first date Bereavement Leave is taken.

Disaster Leave – In the event that you are impacted by a natural disaster, pandemic, or government instability and must evacuate, relocate, seek safety or handle the repair of your property in the aftermath of such a disaster, Kit provides all core team members with up to six weeks (240 hours for full-time and 120 hours for part-time core team members) and Kit Studios team members with the local required amount of paid Disaster Leave.

To be eligible for full Disaster Leave benefits, a core team member must have worked at Kit for 6 months. Prior to reaching six months at Kit, core team members (both full- and part-time) are eligible for two weeks (80 hours for full-time and 40 hours for part-time core team members) of Disaster Leave.

For the purposes of this policy, we define natural disaster as a natural catastrophe including hurricane, tornado, high water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, snowstorm or wildfire; pandemic or epidemic; or government instability. At the beginning of each calendar year, you will receive your Disaster Leave allotment to use throughout that year. Disaster Leave does not roll over from year to year.

 

Requesting Time Off

The process to request time off is pretty simple. For U.S.-based core team members, run your time off request by your manager to make sure the dates work with the rest of the team, and then submit your request in Justworks. If you are an international core team member, do the same planning and communication with your team and manager, and then submit your time off using this form. Every team member must add their scheduled time off in our shared Leave Tracker calendar – this lets your teammates know who’s available and when, so we can all plan our work and communicate effectively. Don’t worry about small appointments – think of large chunks of time – half and full days away that require you to use one of our vacation, sick, or leave policies. You must inform your manager of any and all time off you take, or plan to take.

 

Sabbatical

Available to: All Kit core team members

We hope every person at Kit has a long and meaningful career with the team. To support our most tenured core team members, we offer a paid sabbatical after five continuous years with the team.

Core team members who have been at Kit for five continuous years will have access to four weeks of paid sabbatical. After an additional five years on the team, another four weeks of paid sabbatical becomes available. Sabbatical is paid, 100% of your salary. You may also combine your sabbatical leave with one week of vacation to total five weeks. Once you’re eligible for your sabbatical, you have 18 months from the date of your workiversary to use it. You don’t have to take the full sabbatical amount (four weeks), but the time you take must be consecutive.

How sabbatical works with other leave, benefits, and profit sharing – Utilizing Parental leave, FMLA, or one of our other leave policies during the course of your five continuous years on the team counts towards your total years of service (i.e., we don’t subtract those days and weeks from your total years of service). Even your time on sabbatical counts towards your total time with Kit.

However, when it comes to profit sharing distributions, your profit sharing will be prorated to exclude your time on sabbatical during the profit sharing period. So if you take four weeks of sabbatical during the first half of the year, and there are 25 total weeks in that half of the year, your profit sharing calculation will be 84% of your allotted profit sharing (the 21 weeks you were present divided by the 25 weeks of the time period). If you’re on sabbatical when we distribute profit sharing, we’ll let you know when to expect your distribution payment, prior to your leave.

While you are on sabbatical, your benefits will remain intact, and vacation time will continue to accrue. For U.S.-based folks, you won’t need to return your work equipment while you’re on sabbatical. You can also use any company perks (e.g. wellness or learning + development budget) as usual.

Planning and coverage – Work with your direct manager, your squad or team, and the team members you collaborate with regularly to plan for your sabbatical. With a team Kit’s size, we don’t always have redundancy between roles. So if you’re on a small squad or team, make sure you plan your sabbatical during a time that doesn’t overlap with another team member’s sabbatical or other extended leave. Make sure you have a plan for project coverage and share the status of all projects in an organized, documented way prior to leaving for sabbatical.

Communication and working while you’re out – If you want to work on your side hustle, work on other (non-Kit) projects, or volunteer while on sabbatical, it’s up to you. Just remember the confidentiality clause in your employment contract still applies while you’re out on sabbatical.

Before you head out, please let the team know how accessible you’ll be while on sabbatical – Will you be around and reachable by text or email? Or off the grid?

You’re welcome to pop onto Slack or Basecamp from time to time to say hello, but not to work. Rest assured, we will inform you if any unforeseen organizational changes come up while you’re out, for example we reorganize the team.

If someone decides not to come back after sabbatical leave – While it may be tough to say goodbye, we’d consider someone deciding to leave the team as a positive outcome of their sabbatical because it indicates they got the clarity they needed – away from work – to know what direction they want to head in personally or professionally. If for some reason, we find a number of folks depart the team after their sabbatical, we’ll revisit this policy.

 

Childcare Benefit

Available to: All Kit team members

It’s important to us to build and support a diverse team of people. One way we do this is by providing financial support – along with a flexible work environment – to our working parents, especially  working mothers, who were  disproportionately affected by the covid pandemic and historically face higher rates of attrition in the workforce. We want to keep all of our working mothers on the team by making supportive services more accessible, in addition to normalizing equal access to parental leave for all parents.

For core team members, we offer parents a $3,000 annual childcare benefit and for Kit Studios team members, we offer parents a $1,500 annual childcare benefit through a lifestyle spending account via JOON. Every core team member who is a parent is eligible to enroll in the benefit. The benefit can be used towards qualified childcare expenses in a calendar year. Below is a list of what’s considered qualified and unqualified. The childcare benefit that you receive from your lifestyle spending account will be treated as additional taxable income to you. Kit has historically covered these taxes on behalf of team members but reserves the right to change this at any time.

Qualified

• Daycare or nursery school
• Babysitting (for work-related reasons)
• Before or after school programs
• Extended care for after school hours
• Day camp
• Summer camp
• Preschool
• Nannies
• Tutors

Not qualified

• Private school tuition
• Music or sports lessons
• Language classes
• Household services

The benefit operates as an expense reimbursement system. So parents pay upfront for a childcare expense and then submit the qualified expense for reimbursement via JOON. Expenses are reimbursed within a month. Funds do not roll over from year to year.

Childcare benefit and DCFSAs
When we rolled out this benefit, our primary goal was for Kit to make financial contributions towards childcare expenses for our core team members. Our ideal solution was a Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA). DCFSAs allow working parents to use tax-free funds (i.e. pre-tax deductions from your paycheck) towards a myriad of childcare costs, up to an annual contribution limit of $5,000 per calendar year. DCFSAs are an existing benefit offered to U.S.-based core team members through Justworks. However, Kit is not able to make contributions to DCFSAs at this time. So until employer-contributions are available, we’re offering the additional benefit of $3,000 annually towards qualified childcare expenses.

You can enroll in both the childcare benefit and a DCFSA. However, you must submit separate expenses to each account. This means that if you pay for an after school program for your child, you cannot use both your DCFSA to pay for it and then submit it for reimbursement through Kit’s childcare benefit.

Note that federal tax laws permit a tax credit for certain dependent care expenses. You might save more money if you take advantage of that federal tax credit rather than using the childcare assistance benefits provided by Kit. We encourage you to consult with your personal tax advisor to determine the approach that is best for you and your family. Kit is not qualified to provide personal tax advice to team members.

Wellness

Available to: All Kit team members

Core team members can participate in a number of health insurance and other benefits, subject to the eligibility and other terms and conditions of the benefits.  The details are important, so please see the official plan documents for the full story.  If anything in this handbook conflicts with official plan documents, the plan documents control.

Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance – We offer 4-6 national health plan choices, two dental, and two vision to choose from, depending on your state of residence. New plan selections occur in September/October and are effective November 1st.

One thing to note, you can’t make a change to your plan after the enrollment period unless you have a qualifying life event (baby, move, etc). To do so, you can email support@justworks.com.

For Core team members, we offer up to $1,950/month toward your monthly health premium and cover 100% of vision and dental on any plan choice. For Kit Studios team members, we offer up to $1,000/month toward your monthly health premium and cover 100% of vision and dental on any plan choice. This is more than enough to cover an employee 100% on any plan. If you choose a plan that covers more than yourself, you can use the remainder of the $1,950 (or $1,000 as applicable) to offset premium costs. In some instances there may still be a delta, which will be deducted from your paycheck.

If you are international or are a Kit core team member who has other preferred insurance options, we offer a $9,750 compensation increase in lieu of selecting benefits through Justworks. We do not offer opt-out compensation for Kit Studios team members.

Justworks offers other benefits including Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) for you and your family depending on the health insurance plan you choose. These renew at the beginning of the calendar year.

Justworks also offers supplemental life insurance, voluntary long-term disability insurance, and voluntary short-term disability insurance that you can sign up for at any time (after your initial enrollment) by reaching out to them directly at support@justworks.com. These are paid for out-of-pocket and have a variety of coverage levels. We also carry business insurance policies and through Justworks’ worker’s compensation in each state we have an employee.

There’s also a few other health related programs through Justworks including access to a healthcare support line, on-demand primary care (via video), and virtual health (consulting with a physician via video) for free. You can check out more free services under Wellness Perks in the Benefits section of your Justworks account.

If you need help navigating insurance terminology or understanding the difference between an FSA vs. an HSA, check out Justworks’ Help Center.

Gender Affirming Benefits  – It’s important to us to offer inclusive care to our team. In addition to medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage, Kit will cover up to $99/month towards gender affirming services. Specifically, Kit will cover your monthly premium for Plume, or reimburse you for $99/month for a comparable service – local to you – to provide you with gender-affirming services. Such services may include access to care (virtual or in-office), information for local gender affirming providers and resources, initial evaluations, labs, letters, prescriptions, and progress monitoring (medication expenses are not covered by Plume or Kit).

We also encourage team members to take a look at the gender-affirming benefits available through our Aetna medical insurance plans. 

Other apps and resources to help you on your journey:

• Solace – Solace is a free mobile application for iOS and Android whose mission is to empower transgender individuals to have agency in their gender transition by providing access to credible, relevant information and allowing users to create a custom roadmap toward accomplishing their personal goals. 
• Navigating prescription medication/GAHT

Lastly, we believe in counseling as a way to improve your mental health. It’s not weird and it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. Many team members including the leadership team have or currently meet with a counselor to discuss things going on in life (work and personal). While you likely have coverage through the health plan you’re on, Justworks also offers a 24/7 counseling services line and covers up to three in-person visits with a counselor near you, for each separate issue. If you don’t have access to Justworks, Kit will reimburse you for up to three in-person counseling sessions per calendar year.

Wellness Program – In 2018 we launched our wellness program. We’ve focused on  different aspects of wellness since then through hosted Q&A sessions, monthly challenges, shared resources, reading material and more about a specific  topic. We often have a few focuses throughout the year. We see wellness as multi-faceted and want to give our team the resources to grow in all those ways while they’re here.

You can view past wellness focuses in Basecamp and we encourage you to check out the #wellness channel in Slack.

Next: How We Work