Golden handcuffs meaning: pay that keeps you there

Golden handcuffs meaning in plain words

Golden handcuffs means money you only get if you stay, which makes the job expensive to quit. One dictionary lists the phrase as slang for payments that stop employees, especially senior ones, from leaving for another job.

What the handcuffs are made of

Most golden handcuffs are one of these five things, and you lose each one by leaving.

• Unvested stock or options, which become yours over several years.
• A retention bonus, paid as a lump sum that you have to repay if you leave early.
• A deferred bonus, which is part of this year’s bonus held back for later years.
• A salary above the market, which other employers won’t match.
• Perks that build with time, like extra leave, a pension or a sabbatical.

The rest of the gold collection

Business English has other golden terms for money tied to joining, leaving or staying.

Of these four, only the golden handshake and the golden parachute have entries in our plain-English jargon dictionary.

The four-year clock

The best-known golden handcuff is the startup stock grant, which typically vests over four years with a one-year cliff. Leave in the first twelve months and you get none of it. Only about 4 in 10 startup employees stay long enough to reach the end of their first grant.

The calendar with one date in it

People waiting on a big stock grant plan around its vest date. They time their notice period to start the day after the shares arrive. Until then, some do only what the contract asks, which is known as quiet quitting.

A message about golden handcuffs

DM from Sam, Tuesday 4:12 pm

They offered 15% more and a better title. But my last stock grant vests in March, so it’s golden handcuffs pay that keeps me here until then. I asked if they’d hold the job until April, and they said they’d think about it.

Staying for the money, or for fear

Golden handcuffs keep you because leaving costs money, and job hugging keeps you because leaving feels risky. Garden leave works the other way around. It pays you to stay home for your notice period, away from a rival.

Working it out

To weigh golden handcuffs, list what you’d give up by leaving this year, and when each part would be yours if you stayed. Stock that vests next month can be worth waiting for. For anything further off, tell the new employer about it while they’re still working out the offer.

Next to retirement, a vest date is a short wait. Our retirement countdown counts down to the long one.

Dating the handcuffs

Nobody knows who coined golden handcuffs. One dictionary dates it to the late 1980s, and the phrase may well be older.