Wage gap grows between support staff at tech campuses and high-tech employees

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Amid the affluence of Silicon Valley's highly paid technology employees, an "invisible workforce" of low-paid support staff at the region's tech companies has emerged, making one-fifth the wages of the digital workers, according to a report released Tuesday.

Janitors, landscapers, grounds keepers, facilities cleaners and security guards working under contracts to provide support services to technology sites make about one-fifth the wages of software developers, systems software employees and network engineers, the study by a San Jose-based labor group, Working Partnerships USA, determined.

... The low-paid contract employees make an average of $13 an hour -- well below the $62 an hour for software and networking employees, the report found.

... Among computer and mathematical jobs in Santa Clara County, 88 percent offer earned sick days, and 85 percent of engineering and architecture jobs offer earned sick days, according to the report, which used Census Bureau and Labor Department official reports to compile the data. In contrast, 41 percent of building and ground cleaning jobs offer sick pay.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26403815/wage-gap-grows-between-support-staff-at-tech

[cosmicone]

1. Stupid report

Doctors make more money in hospitals than people who process insurance forms. That is skill and education based pay.

[Demobrat]

2. The problem is that housing costs in the area

have risen to the point where only the most highly paid can afford even basic shelter. A one bedroom apt is upwards of $3500/mo. I have no idea where the support staff are supposed to live.