Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 237 posts

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#61

Post by throwaway7827 »

outside1234 wrote: post #35
claydavisss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you are right about one thing - you know nothing of the State politics Democrats have had a virtual lock on this State for at least five years. So much so that their primary nemesis was their own moderate Governor, Jerry Brown. Think about that - conservatives had been so utterly decimated that the only thing standing in the way of the State legislature was a Governor from their own party. They have a pliant Go…

Honestly, I'm a democrat, and what he says makes a lot of sense. It really worries me that they have a super majority now - my hope is that they use it to invest in infrastructure, like public transit, that is sorely lacking in the state. But I am not holding my breath. I fully expect they will squander it on the public unions and double pensions.

Spending it on public unions would probably raise the incomes for non tech workers in SF.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#62

Post by smudgymcscmudge »

yjhoney wrote: post #34

I started a nonprofit 2 years ago (garagescript.org) that hires low income people in San Jose and their full time job is to learn how to code and teach new students. Our nonprofit started off with 20 students, most were making about 25k/year and had no coding experience. I paid each of them 2k / month to quit their jobs and focus on coding full time. From the original 20 students, 6 are left. The other 14 are all ful…

Nobody has dropped out or decided coding isn't for them? It sounds like you found students who really know what they want. How hard was it to find students and what was your selection process like?

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#63

Post by mlindner »

imagetic wrote: post #18

As someone who lives in the outer bay area, pay for jobs hasn't really gone up at all in the last 8 years, but the tech industry has really pushed the cost of living up a lot. I can't say I've noticed a drop in pay outside of the media industry since that's what I work in. And a lot of that has to do with the cost of gear now and the supply is so high buy the demand hasn't grown that much. Most of my neighbors are co…

This is because zoning laws largely prevent additional housing construction. Converting existing housing isn't blocked however so converting them to vacation rentals makes sense economically.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#64

Post by mlindner »

Scipio_Afri wrote: post #7

Boost the wage floor. High skilled workers have more force to push against the wage supply price that employers set; they have a lot of power to set wages, including an entire department called HR dedicated to ensuring they get the best deal as they can. Low wage employees do not have that power.

The wage floor has been continuously getting raised. Many areas of California have the highest minimum wage laws in the country. That isn't going to solve the problem.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#65

Post by hazz99 »

tomcam wrote: post #54
hazz99 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: I'm not a mod, nor trying to masquerade as one. > Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle. This destroys intellectual curiosity [0] Please keep your ideological battles away from HN. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sticking up for my ideological opposite crankylinuxuser again. HN is constantly used for political and ideological battle. Why is crankylinuxuser's different?

Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion.

This article is about low-skill workers, and has nothing to do with tech companies being against unions.

But, it could simply be a tangential discussion, and those are often interesting! My main concern was the

    Capitalists are well known to conspire together and create capitalist unions to block workers of all stripes.
generalization, which turned a potentially interesting discussion of tech unions into an "capitalism vs. xyz" ideological battle.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#66

Post by beaconstudios »

grandmczeb wrote: post #45
Barrin92 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the jobs that are mentioned in the article that are being hit the hardest are teachers, firefighters, caretakers and so forth. How many of those have been automated away? It seems that tech workers in the valley have found their own analog to blaming immigrants for downward wage pressure, their particular boogeyman seems to be the robots. No, the answer is much more trivial. As the article points out, the huge influx…

> As the article points out, the huge influx of capital in the area is being returned only to the tech sector, who merrily spend it and drive up the cost of living. Most of the cost of living increase is due to bone-headed housing polices happily voted in by existing residents, the vast majority of which do not work in tech. I personally find it very sad that we've prioritized rewarding a tiny, vocal minority at the…

> I personally find it very sad that we've prioritized rewarding a tiny, vocal minority at the expense of literally everyone else

you mean the tech industry? I mean, sure NIMBYism is a big problem but the tech industry gentrifies everything it touches.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#67

Post by hazz99 »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #30
hazz99 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: I'm not a mod, nor trying to masquerade as one. > Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle. This destroys intellectual curiosity [0] Please keep your ideological battles away from HN. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Rather than threats, I'd like to hear commentary. If anyone's "destroy[ying] intellectual curiosity", its the one threatening bans. I've made a point, from multiple sources, that SV major players are retarding salaries from all but the C-level positions. Considering that YC is in that area, it would be a rather interesting discussion to hear from the VC's vs workers vs founders. But, threats.

> it would be a rather interesting discussion to hear from the VC's vs workers vs founders.

I'd love to hear that conversation, I think it'd be very interesting. That is very tangential to commentary on capitalism itself, which is purely ideological.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#68

Post by dragonwriter »

claydavisss wrote: post #10
jjtheblunt wrote: post #8

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi and company keep on taxing to support inefficient bureaucracy

A little trollish, but now that Democrats have a veto-proof majority (meaning Gavin Newsom is really just a spokesperson, his opinion is irrelevant, he cannot veto legislation), Californians only have one party to ask why the State is the way it is....the #1 poverty State. Not only can Californians no longer blame Republicans (there basically aren't any left in the State), they can't even blame the Governor...he is t…

> A little trollish, but now that Democrats have a veto-proof majority

They don't. They are one vote shy in the Senate. Now, they will when the next session starts in December, but that supermajority can't reach back in time, and the economy takes time to change.

> (meaning Gavin Newsom is really just a spokesperson, his opinion is irrelevant, he cannot veto legislation)

That would be true on legislation, in effect, if every Democrat in both houses of the legislature always voted together.

This is decidedly not the case historically.

Also, the Governor's powers aren't just the veto power.

> Not only can Californians no longer blame Republicans

That doesn't mean the actions from when they did have policy power aren't part of the reason for present conditions.

> they can't even blame the Governor.

Well, they can't blame Newsom much, because he isn't Governor until January. But the idea that he will be powerless is unrealistic on many levels.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#69

Post by crankylinuxuser »

hazz99 wrote: post #65
tomcam wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sticking up for my ideological opposite crankylinuxuser again. HN is constantly used for political and ideological battle. Why is crankylinuxuser's different?

Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion. This article is about low-skill workers, and has nothing to do with tech companies being against unions. But, it could simply be a tangential discussion, and those are often interesting! My main concern was the Capitalists are well known to conspire together and create capitalist unions to block workers of all stripes. generalization, which turned…

> Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion.

So... You're masquerading as a HN mod? Damn.

Now, that seems like a bannable offense.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#70

Post by yourbandsucks »

bredren wrote: post #14
claydavisss wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're trapped - probably unable to even scrape together the money to move. Moving is expensive! You need the money not only to relocate, but also to tide you over until you find work. Casual mobility is for the wealthy.

It isn't just that, many low wage people have their families there. Sometimes extended family. Moving would mean moving the whole clan away from friends and their connections and where they grew up. Moving is not a small thing.

And no childcare for their children.
Post reply on HN