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Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

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

#81

Post by bduerst »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #74

How about: 1) Introducing a much higher tax rate for rental property income. 2) Making property taxes be reassessed every single year unless your AGI is lower than average and you are a resident. 3) Introducing a much (much!) higher tax for non-residents/foreign investors who buy a house purely for investment, and sometimes they don't even rent it out (I know a few rich folks from FAANG who bought a handful of houses…

I've had a hard time explaining point 3) to people in other parts of the US, but its a huge and very real problem in the Bay area.

Someone should do a "lights out" analysis in the Bay, where you count the number of homes that don't turn their lights on at night for 30 days.

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

#82

Post by Reedx »

Barrin92 wrote: post #21
lupire wrote: post #6

The author almost noticed Simpson's paradox: > Surprisingly, the UC Santa Cruz study suggests that employment in low wage industries is growing. The share of worker in jobs considered low-wage in 1997 grew 25 percent over the next 20 years, while the percent working in middle- and high-wage jobs declined. The problem isn't that wages are dropping for certain work; the problem is that middle-wage jobs are being automa…

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…

Not really. The money mostly goes to landlords.

VC -> Startup -> Employee -> Landlord

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

#83

Post by refurb »

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…

Congrats on an original model and impressive results. I love how donors know exactly where the money goes - to support themselves while training.

Do you think it's scaleable?

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

#84

Post by jacobolus »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #74

How about: 1) Introducing a much higher tax rate for rental property income. 2) Making property taxes be reassessed every single year unless your AGI is lower than average and you are a resident. 3) Introducing a much (much!) higher tax for non-residents/foreign investors who buy a house purely for investment, and sometimes they don't even rent it out (I know a few rich folks from FAANG who bought a handful of houses…

Keep in mind the context of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(197...

It will take a lot of political organizing to undo. There have been several attempts and they all meet stiff resistance.

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

#85

Post by InclinedPlane »

So much of economics (as it exists in reality, not in theory) is not about maximizing RoI or efficiency or revenue or supply vs. demand, it's about power. Exercising it, abusing it, using it to set up class distinctions, reveling in the feelings of superiority and control, etc. That's a big reason why workers end up underpaid. It's not because it's good for business (it rarely is), it's simply an exercise of power. It feels good to those who want to set themselves up as being above others.

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

#86

Post by pkaye »

space_fountain wrote: post #58
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…

First thanks for what you're doing. I think it's definitely part of the solution. My worry though is that I don't think everyone is equipped to be a programer. The thing I keep coming back to is my younger brother. He's got mental disabilities which mean he can't read or do math at more than a very basic level (first grade maybe) and for what ever it's worth he also scored pretty low on IQ tests. Despite a bit of a f…

I think gardening is a pretty lucrative business right now in the bay area. Atleast by the rates that many are asking. And I've seen many of my neighbors asking each other if they know of any reliable services. All one needs to be is reliable, communicate well and do a decent job.

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

#87

Post by jimmy1 »

whb07 wrote: post #12
kuyaab wrote: post #3

It’s incredible how hard it’s been for retail and service companies to recruit lower-wage workers her in the South Bay. Mike Rowe and tech execs love to talk about skills gaps, but the fact is most jobs aren’t filled because the compensation these positions offer is garbage.

Mike Rowe isn’t talking about unskilled labor. He’s talking about skilled labor like plumbing, carpentry, welding, electricians, etc. Not a stock boy and the like.

Might be anecdotal, but hooo weee, if you are a good electrician right now, you can essentially name your price. Companies will pay it because they aren't willing to take the risk of having it done wrong. Family knows a couple career electricians -- company is paying for them to come out of retirement, paying $50-55 an hour, AND letting them keep their retirement benefits.

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

#88

Post by yjhoney »

smudgymcscmudge wrote: post #62
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?

None of the paid students dropped out. If you were paid the same amount to improve yourself and learn vs packaging boxes at an amazon warehouse, I think the decision is easy.

We didn't have an interview process (in terms of selection). I was originally volunteering at a local library at a Free Code Camp meetup and got our first couple of students from there (the ones who really needed help). Afterwards it was word of mouth.

Finding students wasn't hard. We ran a 3 month pilot at our local library to teach coding for free (our students teaching the public) and many students showed up. In Silicon Valley, libraries wants to provide more technical resource / training but there aren't enough volunteers.

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

#89

Post by pkaye »

Barrin92 wrote: post #21
lupire wrote: post #6

The author almost noticed Simpson's paradox: > Surprisingly, the UC Santa Cruz study suggests that employment in low wage industries is growing. The share of worker in jobs considered low-wage in 1997 grew 25 percent over the next 20 years, while the percent working in middle- and high-wage jobs declined. The problem isn't that wages are dropping for certain work; the problem is that middle-wage jobs are being automa…

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…

If you look up Transparent California, some public employees make pretty good income. In San Jose, there are quite a few of them making >$500k. Similar with other cities. And that doesn't count the lifetime pension, health, early retirement some of them get.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2017/san-jose/

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

#90

Post by 0xffff2 »

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…

That's great, but isn't it orthogonal to the topic at hand? We need non-tech jobs in Silicon Valley as much as anywhere else. Even if we could get every single person in the bay area a job as a software developer of some kind, we would be left in a barren wasteland of office buildings with no services. The solution clearly has to be to somehow make living here viable regardless of how you're employed.
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