Should I pay my kids more or less because they're family?

Neither. Pay them market rate. The last name cannot be a factor in compensation, good or bad. Kris Kluver, in The Dysfunctional Family Office, frames the rule directly. Family members in the company perform as professionals and get paid as professionals. Discounting their salary because they're family produces resentment and quietly signals they aren't real operators. Inflating their salary because they're family produces entitlement and undermines their credibility with the rest of the team. The market rate is the right answer in both directions. The test is whether they could do the same job somewhere else and earn similar compensation. If yes, pay them what they would earn elsewhere. If no, build an improvement plan with clear metrics, not a discount that hides the problem. Most family businesses get this wrong in one direction or the other. Kris Kluver works with families on getting compensation right at thethirtyadvisors.com.