6 ms·

Gibberish article, I’m afraid. As one of said engineers I don’t see how my employer is undercutting me by paying only twice the median, plus bennies. The expen

Gibberish article, I’m afraid. As one of said engineers I don’t see how my employer is undercutting me by paying only twice the median, plus bennies. The expense of Silicon Valley is largely down to growth policy, which is to say, they can’t build housing concomitant with demand. Similarly here in NYC. Making very good money in an very expensive place is not a struggle, it’s a privilege of very few.

vladd 15y ago
If your employer is paying below market rate, he's screwing you, no matter how the market-rate for your skills compares to the median. Being a privilege to work somewhere doesn't make the screwing less wrong.
- randomdata 15y ago
  If Walmart puts a widget on sale, am I screwing them by paying below market rate? They agreed to the terms of sale. So why is selling your services any different?
  - vladd 15y ago
    Imagine Walmart saying: you cannot buy this if you've already had trips to Costco and looked at something similar.
rmc 15y ago
As one of said engineers I don’t see how my employer is undercutting me by paying only twice the median, plus bennies. Your employer would probably pay you more if you had true freedom to take your labour to another company. Your employer seems to have agreed to a cartel to limit your ability to sell your labour.
mjwalshe 15y ago
Housing in Sv is cheap try central London even grotty areas near Silicon Roundabout are way more expensive than that
mjwalshe 15y ago
If they are suppressing the median for your job in that location then they are. If its a very expensive place then your not making "good" money everything is relative -) and ok we re probably all better of than some black single mom in some decaying Rustbelt city it doesn't make it right for your employer to beak the law.
- Drbble 15y ago
  Suppressing the median doesn't hurt more than the bottom half.
  - mjwalshe 15y ago
    um no that's not how it works moving the median lower also pulls down the top half as well. Its effectively changing the distribution of salaries positive skew in statistics speak
moultano 15y ago
>The expense of Silicon Valley is largely down to growth policy, which is to say, they can’t build housing concomitant with demand. I can't tell you how much this infuriates me. I actually heard a Mountain View city council member say, "Maybe we should tell Google that they can't hire any more people." Meanwhile, the city is full of termite-ridden rotting apartment buildings just waiting for the next earthquake to pulverize them. Here's the zoning map for mountain view: http://www.mountainview.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=2459 http://www.mountainview.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?Bl... There's only a single block of high density residential on the entire map.
- brudgers 15y ago
  The R3 zoning district (all that orange on the map) allows fairly high density - FAR 1.05 maximum and upto >40 DU's per acre. [Mountainview, Ca, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 36 Article XII available at www.municode.com] However, the primary land subdivision pattern of many small lots (and consequently many owners) makes assembling parcels suitable for redevelopment at higher densities not just expensive, but difficult. Furthermore, existing high rents mean that the value of the land based on existing cashflows may make redevelopment infeasible once the cost of new construction and land acquisition is amortized and the higher returns associated with the risk of development must be paid. Obsolescent housing (and other structures) remain because they are profitable and can be valued on an existing income basis and thus traded with known risk. Higher density projects may be possible, but the market may not be able to absorb the units if the rents are significantly higher - and of course, higher rents are also likely to be untenable for voters as well.
  - moultano 15y ago
    I don't think that's the issue. Look through the R4 zones on the sunnyvale zoning map. http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/MapsandData.aspx http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/Map... Almost every one of those is a beautiful new (tall) building that efficiently uses the space, and the plots aren't huge.
mjwalshe 15y ago
but they have acted to suppress that median -) this is statistics 101

vladd 15y ago

If your employer is paying below market rate, he's screwing you, no matter how the market-rate for your skills compares to the median. Being a privilege to work somewhere doesn't make the screwing less wrong.

randomdata 15y ago
If Walmart puts a widget on sale, am I screwing them by paying below market rate? They agreed to the terms of sale. So why is selling your services any different?
- vladd 15y ago
  Imagine Walmart saying: you cannot buy this if you've already had trips to Costco and looked at something similar.

rmc 15y ago

As one of said engineers I don’t see how my employer is undercutting me by paying only twice the median, plus bennies. Your employer would probably pay you more if you had true freedom to take your labour to another company. Your employer seems to have agreed to a cartel to limit your ability to sell your labour.

mjwalshe 15y ago

Housing in Sv is cheap try central London even grotty areas near Silicon Roundabout are way more expensive than that

mjwalshe 15y ago

If they are suppressing the median for your job in that location then they are. If its a very expensive place then your not making "good" money everything is relative -) and ok we re probably all better of than some black single mom in some decaying Rustbelt city it doesn't make it right for your employer to beak the law.

Drbble 15y ago
Suppressing the median doesn't hurt more than the bottom half.
- mjwalshe 15y ago
  um no that's not how it works moving the median lower also pulls down the top half as well. Its effectively changing the distribution of salaries positive skew in statistics speak

moultano 15y ago

>The expense of Silicon Valley is largely down to growth policy, which is to say, they can’t build housing concomitant with demand. I can't tell you how much this infuriates me. I actually heard a Mountain View city council member say, "Maybe we should tell Google that they can't hire any more people." Meanwhile, the city is full of termite-ridden rotting apartment buildings just waiting for the next earthquake to pulverize them. Here's the zoning map for mountain view: http://www.mountainview.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=2459 http://www.mountainview.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?Bl... There's only a single block of high density residential on the entire map.

brudgers 15y ago
The R3 zoning district (all that orange on the map) allows fairly high density - FAR 1.05 maximum and upto >40 DU's per acre. [Mountainview, Ca, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 36 Article XII available at www.municode.com] However, the primary land subdivision pattern of many small lots (and consequently many owners) makes assembling parcels suitable for redevelopment at higher densities not just expensive, but difficult. Furthermore, existing high rents mean that the value of the land based on existing cashflows may make redevelopment infeasible once the cost of new construction and land acquisition is amortized and the higher returns associated with the risk of development must be paid. Obsolescent housing (and other structures) remain because they are profitable and can be valued on an existing income basis and thus traded with known risk. Higher density projects may be possible, but the market may not be able to absorb the units if the rents are significantly higher - and of course, higher rents are also likely to be untenable for voters as well.
- moultano 15y ago
  I don't think that's the issue. Look through the R4 zones on the sunnyvale zoning map. http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/MapsandData.aspx http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/Map... Almost every one of those is a beautiful new (tall) building that efficiently uses the space, and the plots aren't huge.

mjwalshe 15y ago

but they have acted to suppress that median -) this is statistics 101