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Comment by Vinnl | Hacker News Reader

One reason that it's could be less bad is due to government measures - e.g. in the Netherlands, employers can apply for the government to pay 90% of your salary for a while while they pay the other 10%, so that they can keep employing you until (hopefully) after things start up again.

No idea how that compares to other companies, but if it differs, that's one possible explanation for different results.

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Not sure if the percentage is the same but small businesses (less than 500 employees) in the US can apply for a loan that converts to a grant if you keep your current employment levels for a set time. 75% of the loan has to be for payroll and the other part for rent, mortgage, and utilities.

https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/how-access-s...

That money has run out already. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/stock-market-liv...

Unfortunately the PPP money has all been dried up as of today, and many small businesses weren't able to take advantage of it. This site was put together to track how many businesses have received it, though it relies on self-reporting from the businesses so it won't be entirely accurate: https://www.covidloantracker.com/

In there an income cap on the 90% of salary?

I'm not an expert on the measure, but the Wikipedia page on it [1] doesn't mention anything like that. It does say that the compensation depends on how much of an organisation's income has been lost, and that it (obviously) only applies as long as the employee is not fired.

[1] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tijdelijke_noodmaatregel_overb...

Only 90%? In the US, the CARES Act is paying 250% of payroll costs!

https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/cares-act-paychec...

I'm not too familiar with CARES, but I think the difference is that that is a one-time loan, whereas I think the Dutch government is taking up 90% of the salary costs every month, for a period of at most three months (so adding up to 270%), and is a gift, not a loan.

That said, my overall point was that different measures can lead to different results - not that specific measures were different.

The CARES Act “loan” is structured as a loan in order to (a) enforce the use of funds for payroll expenses, and (b) use existing banking infrastructure. IIRC if you keep 80% of staff, the loan is forgiven.

That said, the PPP ran out of funds today, so not all businesses are getting saved.

Ah right, then that specific measure sounds rather similar (except for the running out, maybe).

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