4 ms·

They aren't a janitorial company. They hire a service because it's cost-effective, even if said service pays very well. > If they want to understand inequality

They aren't a janitorial company. They hire a service because it's cost-effective, even if said service pays very well. > If they want to understand inequality they just have to look at their own company and see how the higher ups reap most of the benefits. I'm a Software Engineer at another big 4 tech company. While the higher ups are undoubtedly making a ton of money, my income puts me well within the top 5-10% of people in the US. I think bitching about salary inequality at Facebook is a weird place to start. Try Walmart.

rhino369 9y ago
Even if they wanted to keep the service separate for simplicity, Facebook could mandate its contracts pay a prevailing wage. That sort of contract provision is common. >Try Walmart. I bet walmart spends more of their revenue on salary than FB.
- sp332 9y ago
  Walmart bumped their minimum hourly wage to $10 last year, and they're going to $11 this month. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those numbers are higher than what the cleaning staff at FB get.
  - kec 9y ago
    Minimum wage in California is $11/hr as of Jan 1st this year.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - sp332 9y ago
      That's interesting. I think that means McDonalds in California start at $12/hr. http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/01/news/companies/mcdonalds-pay-raise/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/01/news/companies/mcdonalds-pay...
      - kec 9y ago
        Anecdotally all the fast food restaurants I've seen hiring in the bay area are advertising $14-15/hr starting wages.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jhall1468 9y ago
  > I bet walmart spends more of their revenue on salary than FB. What a dumb metric. Of course they do, because they have 100,000s of low paid workers. How the hell is that relevant to a discussion about prevailing wages? Facebook pays extremely well, but now we are going to start a wage discussion with what Facebook's suppliers pay?
maxxxxx 9y ago
I don't know the details about Facebook but for a while I had to visit Apple pretty often for a project. There you had super rich execs, well paid engineers and then a whole layer of people doing cleaning and other stuff that worked for service companies. I talked to some of them while working late and a lot of them had a 3 hour commute one way because they couldn't afford living any closer. I know they are not technically in the janitorial business but it's a necessary part of making the company work. When you want to address inequality we have to stop marking some people as essential and having them participate in the success of the company while others are being left out and get no benefit while also working full time for the company. In my company the lower ranks don't get any yearly bonus while engineers and up get one. These people also contribute to the company's success but somehow they are not deemed worthy enough to get a share of the success.
- jhall1468 9y ago
  Right. That's my point. Facebook pays extremely well, but not all of it's suppliers do. I still can't comprehend why we are going to start there, given it makes very little sense. Start with the actual problem, not a symptom of it.
slivym 9y ago
Your Walmart point is the same as his janitor point. In both instances what is causing huge inequality is that American businesses spend a huge amount of their time and effort finding 'efficiency' in finding ways to get jobs done by paying the average person less and less. It's an asymmetric game where these enormous corporations are spending their enormous collective effort on something that can only result in worse conditions for their employees. Start with Walmart or start with facebook, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it's the same driving business value by squeezing people.
- jhall1468 9y ago
  Except Facebook doesn't have any low-paid employees. This nonsense about the janitorial staff working for a different company is missing the point. Walmart pays all non-managerial retail employees crap. Facebook pays another company that does (potentially... we don't actually know) pays lower than it should.

rhino369 9y ago

Even if they wanted to keep the service separate for simplicity, Facebook could mandate its contracts pay a prevailing wage. That sort of contract provision is common. >Try Walmart. I bet walmart spends more of their revenue on salary than FB.

sp332 9y ago
Walmart bumped their minimum hourly wage to $10 last year, and they're going to $11 this month. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those numbers are higher than what the cleaning staff at FB get.
- kec 9y ago
  Minimum wage in California is $11/hr as of Jan 1st this year.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - sp332 9y ago
    That's interesting. I think that means McDonalds in California start at $12/hr. http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/01/news/companies/mcdonalds-pay-raise/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/01/news/companies/mcdonalds-pay...
    - kec 9y ago
      Anecdotally all the fast food restaurants I've seen hiring in the bay area are advertising $14-15/hr starting wages.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jhall1468 9y ago
> I bet walmart spends more of their revenue on salary than FB. What a dumb metric. Of course they do, because they have 100,000s of low paid workers. How the hell is that relevant to a discussion about prevailing wages? Facebook pays extremely well, but now we are going to start a wage discussion with what Facebook's suppliers pay?

maxxxxx 9y ago

I don't know the details about Facebook but for a while I had to visit Apple pretty often for a project. There you had super rich execs, well paid engineers and then a whole layer of people doing cleaning and other stuff that worked for service companies. I talked to some of them while working late and a lot of them had a 3 hour commute one way because they couldn't afford living any closer. I know they are not technically in the janitorial business but it's a necessary part of making the company work. When you want to address inequality we have to stop marking some people as essential and having them participate in the success of the company while others are being left out and get no benefit while also working full time for the company. In my company the lower ranks don't get any yearly bonus while engineers and up get one. These people also contribute to the company's success but somehow they are not deemed worthy enough to get a share of the success.

jhall1468 9y ago
Right. That's my point. Facebook pays extremely well, but not all of it's suppliers do. I still can't comprehend why we are going to start there, given it makes very little sense. Start with the actual problem, not a symptom of it.

slivym 9y ago

Your Walmart point is the same as his janitor point. In both instances what is causing huge inequality is that American businesses spend a huge amount of their time and effort finding 'efficiency' in finding ways to get jobs done by paying the average person less and less. It's an asymmetric game where these enormous corporations are spending their enormous collective effort on something that can only result in worse conditions for their employees. Start with Walmart or start with facebook, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it's the same driving business value by squeezing people.

jhall1468 9y ago
Except Facebook doesn't have any low-paid employees. This nonsense about the janitorial staff working for a different company is missing the point. Walmart pays all non-managerial retail employees crap. Facebook pays another company that does (potentially... we don't actually know) pays lower than it should.