Silicon Valley Tech Workers Feel Underpaid

[Guest Kloaked]

COLOR ME ORANGE SURPRISED

 

 

 

Tech workers in Silicon Valley feel grossly underpaid says one Twitter employee whose base salary is $160,000. Apparently this is a pretty low income for the position in this area as rent for a two bedroom house can cost around $3000 or more.

 

I didn’t become a software engineer to be trying to make ends meet,” said a Twitter employee in his early 40s who earns a base salary of $160,000. It is, he added, a “pretty bad” income for raising a family in the Bay Area.

The biggest cost is his $3,000 rent – which he said was “ultra cheap” for the area – for a two-bedroom house in San Francisco, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He’d like a slightly bigger property, but finds himself competing with groups of twentysomethings happy to share accommodation while paying up to $2,000 for a single room.

“Families are priced out of the market,” he said, adding that family-friendly cafes and restaurants have slowly been replaced by “hip coffee shops”.

 

 

 

#WageGap

 

 

 

The Twitter employee said he hit a low point in early 2014 when the company changed its payroll schedule, leaving him with a hole in his budget. “I had to borrow money to make it through the month.”

He was one of several tech workers, earning between $100,000 and $700,000 a year, who vented to the Guardian about their financial situation. Almost all of them spoke only on the condition of anonymity, or agreed only to give their first names, fearing retribution by their employers for speaking publicly about their predicament.

 

So basically take this with a grain of salt as nobody is wanting to reveal their identity - with good reason. However, this is very believable if you take into account the cost of living in these areas. So $160,000 sounds like a lot to many people, but it's not a lot in Silicon Valley.

 

Taking the $3k for rent figure the disgruntled Twitter employee quoted, that comes out to $36,000 a year just for rent, which leaves the man with - not taking into account taxes - $124,000 for everything else. This guy's rent cost is about what my actual salary is  ಠ_ಠ

 

Here's where it gets gud

 

One Apple employee was recently living in a Santa Cruz garage, using a compost bucket as a toilet. Another tech worker, enrolled in a coding bootcamp, described how he lived with 12 other engineers in a two-bedroom apartment rented via Airbnb. “It was $1,100 for a fucking bunk bed and five people in the same room. One guy was living in a closet, paying $1,400 for a ‘private room’.”

“We make over $1m between us, but we can’t afford a house,” said a woman in her 50s who works in digital marketing for a major telecoms corporation, while her partner works as an engineer at a digital media company. “This is part of where the American dream is not working out here.”

 

This whole article is full of some juicy stuff. Everything isn't what it's made out to be in Silicon Valley. These people aren't as rich as you think they may be, at least according to this article.

 

Well that's it folks. Remember, Silicon Valley, the ones who absolutely despise the change in the US Presidential administration, are also in a way underpaying their employees for their area. It's almost like these companies don't actually care about miscellaneous political topics/issues and are just virtue signaling.

 

If any of this article's contents is true anyways.

[goodtofufriday]

So between 5 people they made 1mil and couldnt find an apartment??? Maybe Im missing something here but I manage to pay 1500 for rent, 400 for car, 200 for travel expenses, food every day, groceries, a school loan and a credit card bill, and odds and eds, clothes. you know every day stuff. And i do all that with making under 70k

What the hell are these people complaining about? 

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, goodtofufriday said:

So between 5 people they made 1mil and couldnt find an apartment??? Maybe Im missing something here but I manage to pay 1500 for rent, 400 for car, 200 for travel expenses, food every day, groceries, a school loan and a credit card bill, and odds and eds, clothes. you know every day stuff. And i do all that with making under 70k

What the hell are these people complaining about? 

Do you live in the Silicon Valley area?

[goodtofufriday]

1 minute ago, Kloaked said:

Do you live in the Silicon Valley area?

I live in New York City and get taxed about 10~15k out of my salary for various reasons.

[ChineseChef]

4 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

So between 5 people they made 1mil and couldnt find an apartment??? -snip-

The problem is cost of lifestyle.  And to be honest, unrealistic expectations.

 

Yah yah, cost of living bullshit argument.  Everything is so expensive when you live in the place where everyone makes tons of money, and more people want to live there than can afford to, and people who are desperate to look like they are living the dream life do and spend whatever it costs to keep up the facade.

 

I have no sympathy for these people getting paid insane amounts but spending it all right back.  Do some research before you take a job. 

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, goodtofufriday said:

I live in new York City and get taxed about 10~15k out of my salary for various reasons.

I see. I think Silicon Valley is pretty weird when it comes to cost of living, but I can't confirm this and I mentioned in my post to take this whole thing with a grain of salt as names weren't actually mentioned.

[ivan134]

3 minutes ago, ChineseChef said:

The problem is cost of lifestyle.  And to be honest, unrealistic expectations.

 

Yah yah, cost of living bullshit argument.  Everything is so expensive when you live in the place where everyone makes tons of money, and more people want to live there than can afford to, and people who are desperate to look like they are living the dream life do and spend whatever it costs to keep up the facade.

Not going to defend "living beyond their means" since there are many variables I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they have to live there because they work there.

[ChineseChef]

6 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

Not going to defend "living beyond their means" since there are many variables I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they have to live there because they work there.

Yes and no.  They do have to live there if they want that job.  My statement is more based around "if you didn't do any research about where the job was and the cost of living there, than tough shit when life is hard".  You can't complain to the masses who don't even make half of what you make, about "how little" you are getting paid.  It doesn't matter what your bills are.  People making less money don't care, at all, about your money problems.  And these people are basically complaining to the masses on Twitter, hoping for sympathy and raises.

 

They live in their Ivory Towers, complaining to the peasants about how hard their life is.

 

Rereading this, I realize I may be a little more bitter about this than I thought.  I have known too many people that lived in LA and Silicon Valley that are always complaining about how hard their "perfect" lives are.  Gets tiring to see how out of touch with reality they are.

Edited February 28, 2017 by ChineseChef
Clarfication and expansion

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, ChineseChef said:

Yes and no.  They do have to live there if they want that job.  My statement is more based around "if you didn't do any research about where the job was and the cost of living there, than tough shit when life is hard".  You can't complain to the masses who don't even make half of what you make, about "how little" you are getting paid.  It doesn't matter what your bills are.  People making less money don't care, at all, about your money problems.  And these people are basically complaining to the masses on Twitter, hoping for sympathy and raises.

 

They live in their Ivory Towers, complaining to the peasants about how hard their life is.

Just to reiterate, no names (at least full names to where you could identify these people specifically) were mentioned in the article. I don't think they were complaining on Twitter about this.

[goodtofufriday]

4 minutes ago, ChineseChef said:

The problem is cost of lifestyle.  And to be honest, unrealistic expectations.

 

Yah yah, cost of living bullshit argument.  Everything is so expensive when you live in the place where everyone makes tons of money, and more people want to live there than can afford to, and people who are desperate to look like they are living the dream life do and spend whatever it costs to keep up the facade.

I cant sympathize with those people if thats the case. maybe its because I grew up where money was tight, but I don't spend if I cant afford. Always looking to spend as little as possible. Don't give a damn what other people are doing here in new york. 

 

And if they got friends that are only friends if they spend like they do well then thats a pretty terrible life.  

 

9 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

I see. I think Silicon Valley is pretty weird when it comes to cost of living, but I can't confirm this and I mentioned in my post to take this whole thing with a grain of salt as names weren't actually mentioned.

NYC's cost of living is similar, everything is taxed at 8% too. With 160,000k as a salary I could literally be living in a 15k two floor apt in new york ans till have extra, even with a family.

[ivan134]

6 minutes ago, ChineseChef said:

Yes and no.  They do have to live there if they want that job.  My statement is more based around "if you didn't do any research about where the job was and the cost of living there, than tough shit when life is hard".  You can't complain to the masses who don't even make half of what you make, about "how little" you are getting paid.  It doesn't matter what your bills are.  People making less money don't care, at all, about your money problems.  And these people are basically complaining to the masses on Twitter, hoping for sympathy and raises.

 

They live in their Ivory Towers, complaining to the peasants about how hard their life is.

 

Rereading this, I realize I may be a little more bitter about this than I thought.  I have known too many people that lived in LA and Silicon Valley that are always complaining about how hard their "perfect" lives are.  Gets tiring to see how out of touch with reality they are.

I....don't think you read the article.

[ChineseChef]

Just now, Kloaked said:

Just to reiterate, no names (at least full names to where you could identify these people specifically) were mentioned in the article. I don't think they were complaining on Twitter about this.

Yah, I realized I may just be venting about the idiot people I know in my own life that live in these areas and complain about it.  Projecting and ranting a bit, lol.  My bad

[ChineseChef]

7 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

I....don't think you read the article.

The problem with the area is the local refusal to allow for residential redevelopment.  Essentially, the locals who own land/homes quite enjoy renting out their properties for insane amounts of money.  This drives up prices, as the single people are willing to pay whatever it costs for the privilege of working at which company they are at, and living in the area.  So those who can't afford it are pushed out.  This usually includes families and those who lived there before it blew up.

 

It is unfortunate, but such is life.  Vote your opinion.  And if the majority disagrees with you, well, sorry.

[Narnash]

Well I guess it simbly became a more and more attractive area to live and the amount of qualified persons at the same time raised, too. Maybe because of the way easier ways to educate yourself about the whole topic and train and test yourself at home (computers became more affordable, dozen people programm their stuff today).

 

For me it's not a suprise that sallaries compared to region prices reach "a bit more critic point" than 15 years ago. It is simple self regulation of the labor market situation in a capitalistic world. It is the same reason why software developement is relatively strong in eastern europe compared to the richer western europe ... software devolopment an industry with relatively low machinery, hardware and consumption material is strong were the most expensive resorce (salary) is lower.

That it took so long that someone complains about that is however a suprise for me honestly. The only reason why he live an work there today is the fact that the industry started in the silicon valley area, most likely the day will come when at least all outsourceable work will migrate somewhere else almost completely (the dude can call himself lucky in my opinion when he doesn't get exchanged with someone else who want to work for less).

 

 

 

[kuddlesworth9419]

Poor him. As someone making ends meet on minimum wage in the UK. I earn about £12,000 a year which is about $14,000. And I still have money left over. Maybe they are just shit at managing their money. When you are on low income (not in their case) you need to make sacrifices and that's what I did in order to live comfortably. If I was on their money I could buy a house every year.

[Sparviero]

It's 2017 your work force can be distributed around the country. If the cities don't want to rezone the place into an apartment hellhole they don't have to. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I don't know what their pre-tax deduction situation is, but if it's anything like mine, 40%-50% is probably taken right off the bat for taxes and other benefits. So assuming the worst of that, at 50%, $80,000 is taken off right off the bat. That leaves this person with about an average income of about $6,600 per month. Since $3,000 is used for rent, that's already almost 50% of the recommended maximum you should be spending on housing.

 

Then there are other expenses that we're not really aware of, but that provides something of a baseline.

 

Also while we live in an age where we can work remotely, lots of people would still prefer a nice place to live. Sure, I could probably move to Phoenix or Houston and still get a decent software development job without really taking a hit to my current pay and lower my cost of living to income ratio, but then I'd have to deal with the godawful summers.

 

[TidaLWaveZ]

Guys rent is 3x mine and he makes nearly 3x as much as I do so I can understand how it would be tight to raise a family off of that but San Francisco bay is arguably one of the nicest places in America. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Snadzies]

[christianled59]

25 minutes ago, kuddlesworth9419 said:

Poor him. As someone making ends meet on minimum wage in the UK. I earn about £12,000 a year which is about $14,000. And I still have money left over. Maybe they are just shit at managing their money. When you are on low income (not in their case) you need to make sacrifices and that's what I did in order to live comfortably. If I was on their money I could buy a house every year.

I know you probably don't want to hear the cost of living argument, but it's very very true. 

 

People assume since these people are spending multiple thousands of rent every month is because they live in a kick ass apartment. I highly doubt it actually. Near silicon valley, houses that would cost $50k in Missouri can cost upwards of $1mil. A $50k house is pretty shit tbh. I bet he's living in a middle class looking apartment but paying as if its a small mansion in most other places. 

 

In the article, he even said that was one of the cheapest places he could find. I know a TON of people who live in silicon valley. The common word is, you need at least $118k a year to even live there really. 

 

 

 

 

Another thing: "why take the job then?"

 

Because they went to years of schooling and most tech jobs are in silicon valley. School in the US is absurdly high; nobody wants to graduate and find themselves working at a fucking mcdonalds, or even a shitty tech company that doesn't put their motivation, ambition, and skills to actual use. 

[Trixanity]

So the cost of living there is untenable because of greedy property owners jacking up prices? That's the American dream, isn't it?

 

If all tech companies want to bunch up in this expensive area and want happy employees why don't they just buy out some property and start building the fuck out of the area and providing affordable housing for their employees? Problem solved.

 

Short term it's probably unpleasant but the benefits long term would probably be fantastic.

 

Yeah, I know fuck all about real estate but it's the obvious solution.

 

They could probably start selling houses to employees and apartment complexes to interested third parties to get out of the business gracefully while having done some corporate social responsibility type shit that makes the media gobble it up like cake.

[ChineseChef]

14 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

- move to Phoenix - but then I'd have to deal with the godawful summers.

Oh, the summers aren't that bad.  Yah it hits 120, but it doesn't stay that hot for very long, only a week or two.  And it chases away the snow birds for a little while.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, ChineseChef said:

Oh, the summers aren't that bad.  Yah it hits 120, but it doesn't stay that hot for very long, only a week or two.  And it chases away the snow birds for a little while.

When up to five months out of the year are in triple digit heat for most of the day, yeah, no thanks. Even worse when the low is still near 90. I kind of want to enjoy walking around at night without sweating.

 

Before anyone goes "you're probably not used to it/experienced it", growing up I lived a part of California where triple digit temperatures during the summer time was a common occurrence. Then I moved to a tropical island for another six years in a place without AC (or at least, we didn't use the AC much).

[ChineseChef]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

When up to five months out of the year are in triple digit heat for most of the day, yeah, no thanks. Even worse when the low is still near 90. I kind of want to enjoy walking around at night without sweating.

 

Before anyone goes "you're probably not used to it/experienced it", growing up I lived a part of California where triple digit temperatures during the summer time was a common occurrence. Then I moved to a tropical island for another six years in a place without AC (or at least, we didn't use the AC much).

I will say, my first year here, oh man.  I was not ready.  I thought I was ready, I was not.  125 during the day, 115 at night.  For a month.  But, 5 years later, anything below 80 is cold to me, and 80s/90s feels good.  The dryness causes a lot of cracked skin, but I would prefer the dry to everything feeling damp.  I grew up with the humidity, and I hate it.

[AnonymousGuy]

This is why I don't live in California.  I'm smart enough to look at cost of living BEFORE moving somewhere.

 

Bunch of whiney cunts.