Silicon Valley's poorest workers tell government 'we can't live like this'

[KamaAina]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/silicon-valley-service-workers-poor-intel-tech-facebook

At Intel’s corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, the highly paid engineers and developers directly employed by the computer chip company wear blue identification badges.

Janitors, electricians, gardeners, security guards and cafeteria workers employed by various subcontractors wear green badges.

It’s an important distinction for Nahima Aguiniga, 34, who works as a cashier and dishwasher at a cafe on the Intel campus. Blue badges get free coffee, soda and fruit; green badges have to pay....

“The way they treat green badges, it’s like we’re second-class citizens,” said Aguiniga. A single mother of two, Aguiniga earns just $13.50 per hour. She can’t afford her own apartment in an area that has such a high cost of living that even highly paid tech employees and venture capitalists are balking. For the past 10 weeks, she and her children have been sharing a single room in her ex-mother-in-law’s house.

[mackerel]

1. It's too bad because the blue badges can afford to pay.