Facebook raises minimum pay for contractors to $15 per hour

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/14/us-facebook-wages-contractors-idUSKBN0NZ00C20150514

by var_eps • 11 years ago

69 65 11 years ago

reuters.com

csbrooks• 11 years ago

Good for them! I like it.

vivab0rg• 11 years ago

One would be forgiven to think a company like Facebook, with a market cap of 224.82B, would pay a little more?

thfuran• 11 years ago

I'm pretty sure $15/hr and 3 weeks paid vacation is extremely good for janitorial work.

Sanddancer5• 11 years ago

Not in this area. $15/hr means that at paying a third of your gross (not net) pay in rent, you'll not afford anything anywhere near the facebook campuses, and will barely afford anything at all in the bay area. [1] The real estate market in this area is amazingly dysfunctional; the working class cannot live here.

[1] http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa?maxAsk=833&bedrooms=1

theli0nheart• 11 years ago

Why would market cap have anything to do with it? Walmart has a larger market cap than Facebook ($239B) and pays $9 / hour to its workers [1].

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/19/news/companies/walmart-wages...

x5n1• 11 years ago

Walmart also makes significantly less per worker than Facebook.

mikeryan2• 11 years ago

In Facebook's defense, I doubt they have many minimum wage folks on staff. These are forcing their vendors, cleaning, catering etc. to pay a livable wage (undoubtedly Facebook will pay for this increase however).

Its not something you normally pay attention too. I have a 8 person office in SF that I get cleaned weekly. I have no idea what those individuals are getting paid of the amount I pay to the cleaning service.

someonefromsome2• 11 years ago

Key point here... It would be interesting to see if they have anyone making less than that currently.

mliker• 11 years ago

>>Contractors will also receive...a $4,000 new child benefit for parents who do not receive parental leave

Contractors definitely did not receive that before...So that's another key point

someonefromsome2• 11 years ago

I like that one :-)

PaulHoule• 11 years ago

If you work four jobs like that you might be able to live in Fresno and commute on the back of a pick up truck to San Jose.

pc862• 11 years ago

$15/hr is a $30k a year FT job. Sure it's not going to make anybody wealthy. But I don't think there are many people making $120k a year commuting on the back of a pickup.

mikeryan2• 11 years ago

$15/hr is a $30k a year FT job. Sure it's not going to make anybody wealthy. But I don't think there are many people making $120k a year commuting on the back of a pickup.

I don't think the GP is saying folks are working 4 full time (40 hours per week) jobs to get up to 120k per year. I'm pretty sure 8 hours of sleep a week isn't feasible.

andrewljohnson• 11 years ago

No way! It's more like a $15K/year job.

1) The tax treatment on 1099s is worse than for W2s

2) You're basing this on working (and billing) 2000 hours a year. That's not remotely reasonable, because contractors often have to spend time finding new jobs.

Plus 2000 hours is grueling! That means a strict 2 weeks of vacation - no sick time, no Christmas, no nothing. This is not how a W2 worker is treated, and most W2 workers (especially knowledge workers) can't produce quality work for 8 hours per day, year-round.

shostack2• 11 years ago

I also don't think $120k/yr out here is going to make anybody wealthy given housing prices and cost of living. And that's with a modest lifestyle.

I know, "boohoo silicon valley problems" but that is a scary thought that $120k doesn't get you much of anything out here.

pyrophane• 11 years ago

Your comment was initially amusing, but then I did the math and realized how little $15/hour actually is. If someone were able to work the equivalent of full-time, they'd make what? 15 * 40 * 52 = 31,200? Where could you live anywhere near a Facebook office on that? Seattle? Definitely nowhere convenient to their bay area HQ.

maxxxxx• 11 years ago

When I visited Apple a few years ago somebody talked about some cleaners having a 3 hour commute each way.

stephengillie2• 11 years ago

There are low-income apartments at the opposite end of downtown (near ID) from Facebook's offices in SLU. Though, at that pay rate, a single renter might be making too much to qualify for them.

hsod• 11 years ago

It would be no problem to live within an easy bus ride of FB offices in Seattle on 31k (with roommates). Lots of my friends do it.

VOYD• 11 years ago

Definitely not Seattle.

Ollinson• 11 years ago

Don't forget taxes.

johnward• 11 years ago

Just FYI a general rule is hourly rate x 2,000 or easier for most people to remember is hourly rate times 2 and add 3 zeros.

omouse2• 11 years ago

It's a step in the right direction and it's a signal. If Facebook can afford to do this then other companies can afford to do it too.

ancap2• 11 years ago

It has little to do with whether a company can "afford" it. If the worker does not provide at least $15/hour worth of value to the company, they will be out of a job.

Positions which do not provide value > than the minimum wage will be eliminated, either because the roll they fulfill can be automated at that price point or its no longer worth while to the company.

andzt• 11 years ago

*then some other companies with similar scale and profitability can afford to do it too

It in no way means all or most other companies can afford to do so.

wheels• 11 years ago

Or you could live in the East Bay or San Jose, both within a half hour drive:

http://rentheatmap.com/sanfrancisco.html

raincom• 11 years ago

Eastbay is not cheap either. Either one has to live in Stockton/Modesto/Patterson or further east.

nashashmi• 11 years ago

Maybe min. pay is supposed to be an entry level work. Duration will probably get you either directly hired or later laid off.

If that is the situation, why would you pay more than $15/hr.

Also, I wish there was a context of this "minimum pay" policy.

johnrob• 11 years ago

The real issue isn't wages - it's cost of living. If we really want to make people's lives better, we need to address whatever causes prices to increase (limited housing supply is probably the biggest culprit).

gooseus• 11 years ago

I was under the impression is was foreign demand for high yield real estate investment vehicles?

I don't know a lot about real estate though.

Sanddancer5• 11 years ago

For those wondering what this means, it means that a Facebook contractor would still be in the lowest quarter of income earners in Santa Clara County [1]. As such, one would qualify for rental assistance, etc from the county, as the going rate for a /studio/ is $1200/month [2]. The inflated wages of the tech industry have placed an unbearable burden on the average person.

[1] http://www.hacsc.org/section-8-housing-programs/waiting-list...

[2] http://www.hacsc.org/section-8-housing-programs/housing-choi...

johnbabboozle5• 11 years ago

'Lowest quarter' is a huge range. I don't think it's scandalous that Facebook pays it's lowest skilled workers in the lowest quarter of wages.

If I looked at actual pay and actual expenses I might agree, but lowest quarter isn't a good argument to make.

Sanddancer5• 11 years ago

The links have the pay and average expenses in them. Average pay for a studio is $1200/month, way out of the range a facebook contractor could afford.

danbruc6• 11 years ago

A really bold and fair move would be to pay them comparable to their developers and other staff. Of course not going to happen anytime soon.

johnbabboozle5• 11 years ago

Why is that fair? They don't have the same education (in general), they aren't doing the same job, they don't contribute the same value, etc etc etc.

calibraxis2• 11 years ago

One dev (who I gave a plum job to) used exactly those arguments. When trying to dissuade me from helping marginalized coworkers with thieving bosses. I shrugged, and decided to stop helping his sociopathic entitled white male self. (And got him to occasionally help people nobler than him, as I had sufficient power to do so.)

danbruc6• 11 years ago

Why should a developer working 40 hours a week earn more than say someone cleaning toilets 40 hours a week? Both are investing 40 hours of their time, both add value worth 40 hours of work. Actually cleaning toilets seems a way less pleasant job and should be paid better. On the other hand the developer spend more time in education not getting paid and has to recapture this investment. They would probably not end up with the exact same wages but I see no justification for enormous differences.

The supply and demand situation is of course very different allowing developers to ask for high wages and on the other hand allows forcing the toilet cleaner to work for a low wage but this does by no means make this fair.

calibraxis2• 11 years ago

That I would love. Not only did my colleagues generally have less pay, but less privilege and empowerment too. (They'd labor under an abusive-ass boss while I could determine how I best work.) Pretty rotten system we've got.

nemmonszz• 11 years ago

Wow. It boggles my mind that any contractor working for Facebook would be making anything near that low.

Facebook raises minimum pay for contractors to $15 per hour

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