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Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

theguardian.com

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Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#191

Post by notacoward »

myroon5 wrote: post #164

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

I have to travel to Facebook HQ once a month, unless I'm traveling to some other FB facility. Since I switch hotels and run in the mornings, this has given me a good opportunity to see what's going on in several different neighborhoods. One constant seems to be a pretty high number of camper vans, or sometimes plain old utility vans, parked semi-permanently on side street. I'm sure some of these are just there because there wasn't room in the driveway, as might happen anywhere. I'm equally sure that most are people living there, and not always low-income people. There are surely a fair number of Google and Facebook and whatever-else developers, making well into six figures, saving money that way. That's how bad the housing market is. Even the tiny bit of land for a mobile home is expensive. Glad I don't live there myself.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#192

Post by JustAnotherPat »

What I get from this article is that these people should be salaried employees, not contractors.

Sure it's not as cheap for Facebook, but folding them into a system that already exists is probably more cost efficient for society itself than having them fend for themselves in the money-pit of a private marketplace.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#194

Post by kevin_b_er »

jeffdavis wrote: post #185

They make decent money -- good money even. This is really an article about the high housing costs in the Bay Area. I don't see any other real message here. All of the people who oppose residential development near work sites are to blame. Period.

They make terrible money because they have no net money after basic expenses.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#195

Post by derekdahmer »

> A spokeswoman for Facebook said none of the company’s contingent or contract workers have access to facilities such as clinics, gyms, or bring-your-child-to-work days

One thing I liked about AirBnB was their entire staff including cafeteria workers and security guards were full-time employees who ate the same food, had access to the same facilities and events, and went through the first week 'bootcamp' alongside developers, HR, and upper management.

That doesn't solve the wage gap, but it does make a huge difference in developing empathy to see people you've had common experiences with at all levels of the organization.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#196

Post by sidlls »

koolba wrote: post #174

> They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment. They might want to look into not being marri…

What you describe is called fraud, and the anti-poor people in this country would go after them for it, just like they went after "welfare queens" and the like.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#197

Post by maxerickson »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #145
nxsynonym wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's education inflation. a college degree is the new highschool diploma. Even with a 4 year degree in a "real" field of study (business/stem/finance/whatever) it's becoming more and more difficult to land entry level jobs. If you pay 30/60/90k for said degree, you are going to feel entitled (rightfully or not) to working in a position that's not for the "uneducated". These positions still need to be filled though, b…

We wouldn't need 4 year degrees if we hadn't dumbed down public school. We wouldn't need 4 year degrees if employers were allowed to give potential employees an IQ test. Want to become an electrician? You aren't allowed to take an unpaid internship, so what do you have to do instead? Now you have to pay the electrician to teach you in a classroom setting, putting you in massive debt. >I'm of the opinion that yes, eve…

An electrician union here advertises apprenticeships with (decent for entry level) hourly pay, benefits and no debt upon completion.

It's several years to complete, but the 8000 hours of work experience is then sufficient to get a license to work independently.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#198

Post by canadian_voter »

koolba wrote: post #174

> They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment. They might want to look into not being marri…

They might want to look into not being married.

Wow. Just wow. For some people, marriage is more than a financial arrangement.

They'd also save a bundle by not having kids. Maybe they should sell one of them, it would help pay for the others?

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#199

Post by andrewljohnson »

sidlls wrote: post #196
koolba wrote: post #174

> They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment. They might want to look into not being marri…

What you describe is called fraud, and the anti-poor people in this country would go after them for it, just like they went after "welfare queens" and the like.

How is getting divorced to maximize tax avoidance or get government services even remotely fraud? Is there a statute on that?

You can obviously avoid marriage in the first place, in order to maximize services or avoid taxes.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#200

Post by sidlls »

myroon5 wrote: post #164

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

I pay almost $50k/year in rent for my family of four well outside of any city center. We live in a very modest apartment/townhome. That's right: my annual rent is just about the same as the median gross income for a household in this country.

It is absurd, but I can easily see a family struggling to live on ~$65k take-home.

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