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Facebook Median Pay now $240k

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Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#11
That is only possible because of outsourcing. If you only employ the highest paid earners and use contractors for all support staff, you artificially inflate your median salary. I'd bet that FB has much lower salaries if you count anyone working full time for Facebook.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#12

I've definitely felt the challenge of hiring in a startup as a result of these kinds of numbers. I'm curious what others think will come of this seeming bubble in compensation.

Why is it a bubble when they have an incredibly successful business that prints money where the people building the service are being rewarded for helping build such a successful outcome?

Because that was exactly the argument banks used before 2008. Not that salaries in Finance are low now but a lot of the excesses have been cut back following the crisis. Banks also made a ton of money pre-2008 but that didn't come out of nowhere.

So far, there has been no industry that just continued making high margins over decades without any cut backs. I doubt tech will be the first one.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#13
post #11

That is only possible because of outsourcing. If you only employ the highest paid earners and use contractors for all support staff, you artificially inflate your median salary. I'd bet that FB has much lower salaries if you count anyone working full time for Facebook.

What percentage of Facebook workers are contractors?

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it a bubble when they have an incredibly successful business that prints money where the people building the service are being rewarded for helping build such a successful outcome?

Because that was exactly the argument banks used before 2008. Not that salaries in Finance are low now but a lot of the excesses have been cut back following the crisis. Banks also made a ton of money pre-2008 but that didn't come out of nowhere. So far, there has been no industry that just continued making high margins over decades without any cut backs. I doubt tech will be the first one.

But the industry as a whole doesn't have these margins or salaries; only the top dogs do.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#15
post #9
post #6

I've been thinking a lot about the merits of the (highest income / median income) ratio in creating a society that is a little more resistant to eventual inequality. Rather than setting absolute tax brackets, what if we define tax brackets by this ratio? That way, it will be in the interest of the highest income earners to raise the median income.

It's easily gamed by contracting out for lower paid workers. What if Facebook came in at highest median pay because it relies more on contractors than other companies? The data would be a bit more useful if they reported the job title of the median worker.

I was thinking more about this applying to all adult citizens of a country and not any particular corporation...

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#16
post #6

I've been thinking a lot about the merits of the (highest income / median income) ratio in creating a society that is a little more resistant to eventual inequality. Rather than setting absolute tax brackets, what if we define tax brackets by this ratio? That way, it will be in the interest of the highest income earners to raise the median income.

Ben & Jerry's originally capped the pay ratio of their highest salaried executive and lowest-earning-worker to 5:1 ($150,000/year and $12/hour in 1995), but over the years they raised the ratio to 7:1, 17:1, and then stopped sharing a ratio after Unilever acquired them in 2000.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/companies-follow-ben-jerrys-l...

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#17
post #11

That is only possible because of outsourcing. If you only employ the highest paid earners and use contractors for all support staff, you artificially inflate your median salary. I'd bet that FB has much lower salaries if you count anyone working full time for Facebook.

What percentage of Facebook workers are contractors?

He probably means cleaning staff, cooks and other auxiliary functions.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#18
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of Facebook workers are contractors?

He probably means cleaning staff, cooks and other auxiliary functions.

Cleaning staff, cooks, etc, scale with the size of buildings. Customer support staff, content flag reviewers, etc, scale with the number of users. Since Facebook has so many users, I would expect the second category to be much larger.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#19
post #6

I've been thinking a lot about the merits of the (highest income / median income) ratio in creating a society that is a little more resistant to eventual inequality. Rather than setting absolute tax brackets, what if we define tax brackets by this ratio? That way, it will be in the interest of the highest income earners to raise the median income.

Never heard of that but it sounds like a good idea intuitively! I’ve always thought median was meaningless, and an average without the standard deviation was as well.

Re: Facebook Median Pay now $240k

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There might be some regulatin coming their way.

Which will make their business even more solid as it will make it harder for new entrants.

Not really no. Not all regulations are like that. These will most likely go after fb very directly.
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