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Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

businessinsider.com

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Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#421

Post by seszett »

ThePadawan wrote: post #417
s73v3r_ wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why jump through all those hoops, instead of stopping at "increase salaries"?

Depending on legislature, it can be a win-win situation. Example: Currently living in Switzerland, which has "Lunch cheques" [0]. Employees don't pay income tax on their value, employers don't pay social security on their value, local restaurants/takeaways get more customers. [0] https://www.lunch-check.ch/en

That's a "win-win" if you just take these particular employees and their company into account. It's a net loss for the state and the rest of its citizens however.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#422

Post by isostatic »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #412
a5seo wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. This is the giant disconnect between muni govnerment planners and tech. They literally cannot fathom that people in tech are trying to squeeze the most from every minute in the day. Just. Do. Not. Get. It.

> squeeze the most from every minute Don't do that. It hurts. You.

On a good day, I work about 5 hours a day. That's non stop, from about 10.30 until about 4pm, or from about 3pm to 8pm.

If I stop for lunch, I stop, and don't get back into it.

So I eat lunch at my desk. It's not bad for me. 10 hour days to accomplish half the work is bad.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#423

Post by emilfihlman »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #268
sverige wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, compelling people to buy things that ought to be a personal and private decision is a very popular policy position for governments to take in recent years.

The government isn't compelling you to go to the local shopping centre. You can still order off Amazon.

Still.

But given this, can you say it will be for long?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#424

Post by sokoloff »

hellisothers wrote: post #244
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…

Problem is the employee is taxed on those funds AND those funds aren’t tax deductible for the employer like dine in (50%) or in house food (100%) so it’s nowhere near comperable.

Money paid to employees in this way is tax-deductible to the employer, same as the rest of the employee’s salary is.

(It is worse for the employee, of course.)

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#425

Post by midasz »

pyrale wrote: post #404
hellisothers wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is the employee is taxed on those funds AND those funds aren’t tax deductible for the employer like dine in (50%) or in house food (100%) so it’s nowhere near comperable.

It sounds reasonable that the richest industry/workers in the area don't get free perks at the expense of other taxpayers. Non-financial compensations are taxed in many countries, I really don't see what's wrong here.

You just summoned the libertarians haha

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#426

Post by zerr »

BurningFrog wrote: post #329
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…

The benefit of a company cafeteria is mostly that you don't lose half an hour walking to a restaurant, waiting in line, ordering etc. It's not about the money.

But is not it really a one hour break? Besides eating, shouldn't you rest a bit during a day? I guess companies with onsite cafeterias trying to squeeze every minute from their employees.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#427

Post by zerr »

isostatic wrote: post #422
B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> squeeze the most from every minute Don't do that. It hurts. You.

On a good day, I work about 5 hours a day. That's non stop, from about 10.30 until about 4pm, or from about 3pm to 8pm. If I stop for lunch, I stop, and don't get back into it. So I eat lunch at my desk. It's not bad for me. 10 hour days to accomplish half the work is bad.

You can split the work and do the rest next day, there is no rush, really.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#428

Post by isostatic »

closeparen wrote: post #347
st26 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to imagine your local city bus is so unpleasant to be called a dystopian hellscape.

While I was a BART commuter, I walked a gauntlet of slumped-over hard drug users, sprawled-out homeless people, human urine, and feces every day. Fortunately, I've only seen people drop their pants and take a shit on the sidewalk in front of me twice. Missed a random stabbing on the stairwell into my station by about 5 minutes. This is Civic Center Station, which serves Twitter, Uber, and Square. No amount of tech wo…

Perhaps move out of the third world city you live in and move to a developed one?

Only problem I've encountered on public transport on 5 continents is the occasional drunk group singing on Friday night.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#430

Post by itsmenotyou »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)

I get that this is an issue close to the heart of people on this site, but if you accept that this is a good law (which of course can be debated), then this is the only realistic way to introduce it. Perhaps they should have included a provision for gradually phasing out the existing cafeterias.

On a slightly off topic note, when your company gets to cafeteria size are you really a startup any more?

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