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Google Businesses

Google Will Require Temp Workers Receive $15 Minimum Wage, Parental Leave (theverge.com) 79

Posted by BeauHD from the cause-and-effect dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Google said today that it would require its extended, non-employee workforce in the United States receive comprehensive health care coverage, a $15 minimum wage, and 12 weeks of parental leave. The move follows protests from employees and other workers at Google who have pushed the company to offer more benefits. Google relies on a massive staff of temporary, vendor, and contract workers, many of whom are supplied by third parties and aren't offered the same benefits as full Google employees. The disparity has led to calls for better conditions for the workers. Today, The Guardian reported that more than 900 employees have signed a letter supporting temporary workers whose contracts for work on Google Assistant were shortened.

In a statement announcing the changes, Google said it would require companies that provide temporary and vendor staff to offer health care benefits, including mental health, pediatric, oral, and dental services, as well as a minimum of eight paid days of sick leave. Workforce providers will also be required to pay workers at least $15 per hour and offer $5,000 per year in tuition reimbursement. The wage requirements will go into effect at the end of the year, Google said, and the health care requirements will start before 2022. The Tech Workers Coalition, which has organized tech industry workers, criticized that timeline. "Changes announced today apply to no one working right now -- but workers can't wait years to pay rent, see doctors and care for their families," the organization said in a tweet.
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Google Will Require Temp Workers Receive $15 Minimum Wage, Parental Leave More

Google Will Require Temp Workers Receive $15 Minimum Wage, Parental Leave

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  • It isn't just Google (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @07:19PM (#58375344) Journal
    The entire tech industry in many cases employ more 'contingent workers' than they do direct-hire employees, and quite frankly as one getting the hell off the 'contigent worker' treadmill: it's a shitty way to live. While their calls for better minimum wages and actual benefits for contingent workers sounds good on the surface, they're still 'second class citizens' compared to the direct-hire workers, and in some cases that's literal not figurative.

    • I'm still trying to grasp the notion that H1-B's & L1's make less than $15/hr. I could believe that in 2000, but in 2019???

      • These are probably the people who work in the cafeteria and such. An H1-B wouldn't take $15 per hour. That works out to only about $30,000 per year, which no one would take. Even interns are going to make more than $15/hour at most tech companies, even in smaller cities. Hell, even creimer wouldn't have worked for that little.
        • Tech support workers make $10/hr to $25/hr. Those numbers are probably higher today, say $15/hr to $30/hr, because $15/hr is or will be minimum wage in some parts of Silicon Valley. As housing costs go up and unemployment goes down, the supply of cheap tech support workers has been dwindling. Google and other tech companies will have to pay more for a cheap tech support.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by keltor ( 99721 ) *
        I'm a little confused by H1Bs making that little. I'm not allowed to bring in H1Bs at the company I work at for less than the AVERAGE rate for the job type. So the discussion has to start at the Average. (And to be honest, all of our H1Bs are probably equivalent to a Google SSWE-type position, they have have plenty of experience, most with Masters or PhDs, often from American schools at that.)

  • move faster then quarterly, piss off the CEO, or go on strike.

  • Wow, wage increase, cool (Score:3)

    by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @07:23PM (#58375358) Journal

    Comprehensive (whatever that means) health care coverage? That's impressive.

  • Shit, there really is a glut of talent programmers in India.... /s

  • Google has a lot of employees around the World (Philippines, China, India, etc) that would love to make $15/hr.

    • Google has a lot of employees around the World (Philippines, China, India, etc) that would love to make $15/hr.

      Typical wages in these countries is far less than $15/hr, but expenses are also far less. Paying 1st world wages just pushes up inflation and creating a division between tech "royalty" and everyone else working in the local economy.

      • but expenses are also far less

        As if they deserve to be limited by how poor their surrounding country is? Philippine workers deserve every cent of what american workers make.

        Paying 1st world wages just pushes up inflation and creating a division between tech "royalty" and everyone else working in the local economy.

        That's because it signals to the rest of the community how to actually participate in the global economy, and the benefits from doing so rather than maintaining locally efficient but globally inefficient behaviour becomes overwhelming. A normal person living in 21st century america has a lifestyle that approximates unfathomable wealth to a 13th century monarch (w

        • How much longer are we going to have ice cream wealth in the United States. That ice box requires electricity, which ends up about a $100 USD per month charge. That is quite a hefty monthly bill. One I probably should have gone without.
          • People used to look forward to a future where ice boxes would get gradually cheaper, as more of the world becomes more productive. Maybe those times can come again someday if we can help bootstrap places like the Philippines up away from being tempted into dawla al islamyya's barbarism or worse.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )

        The "expenses" thing is a lie. Food and energy are commodities and they cost the same everywhere you go. My friend making $6000 a month in Ireland pays the same as I do in Argentina for 1kg of meat. But my salary is under $1000 a month.

        The difference with our countries is that we also have lower standards of living. Not all our roads are paved, we don't get to eat meat as many times a week as you do, etc.

        And the "it's ok to pay them less" just perpetuates that. And it has another consequence: immigration. A

        • Food and energy are commodities and they cost the same everywhere you go.

          I was in Lanzhou for two weeks last summer. Everyday, I bought a bowl of rice congee for breakfast. It cost 5 mao, or about 6 cents.

          Food is far cheaper in poor countries.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by hjf ( 703092 )

            So you "were" in a poor country for two weeks, and now you can tell people like me, who live in such poor countries, what life is like over here?

            Fuck you.

    • Globally jobs do not really give big healthcare plans as the GOV provides most of them.

  • Who Even Makes That? (Score:4, Informative)

    by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @08:06PM (#58375544)
    I can't imagine any Google workers short of maybe some facilities workers being paid that little anyways. Even interns get more than that at most Fortune 500 companies.
    • My wife was offered a full-time job that was subcontracted, with Google as the client. They offered her 7 USD per hour. I'll bet that the company in the middle was getting plenty of money out of the deal, but because it was contracted out, they can get away with paying a pittance for a highly skilled full-time position.

  • If they really feel that strongly about it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SlaveToTheGrind ( 546262 ) on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @08:24PM (#58375598)

    maybe they should just hire the workers as full-time employees, pay them what they apparently believe they should be paid, and give them the benefits they apparently believe they should receive.

    Keeping the workers as contractors that Google can use as much or as little as they please, but forcing their actual employers to give them above-market pay and benefits regardless of how much time they actually spend on Google contracts, gives Google all the benefit (PR, goodwill) and very little of the risk.

    • It's a culture fit. Being a Google employee carries with it a fair bit of status. Googlers don't like being on the same level as ordinary workers or cafeteria cooks. It's galling to think that the uneducated get the same benefits as you. It causes mental distress and we know Googlers are highly sensitive to that sort of thing (it's called "neuroticism" and got James Damore in a lot of trouble).
  • Just wondering if they sleep under their desk and if Google provides showers and laundry services for these $15/hour workers. Certainly $15/hour workers can't afford housing in Silicon Valley unless it's in the local homeless shelter. I understand Google provides "free" food for some workers, but not sure about these folks under discussion.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hjf ( 703092 )

      I haven't been to google but I've been told these workers have a different color badge, and that color doesn't enable them to get free food at the cool cafeterias there.

  • Push the ads deep into the OS, the browser and then stop all attempts at ad blocking.
    Every ads counts to pay for wage virtue signalling.
    How about putting that money to making a new search engine that works without de ranking results?

  • For I am KING, and you live only to serve.

  • First off? I think wages and benefits absolutely have to be appropriate for the location of the job. With the cost of living as high as it is out in California, I would think Google would have already been paying contract workers at least $15/hr. wages or so?

    But overall, I really dislike this push to make the $15/hr. wage a LEGAL mandated minimum. If a business does it voluntarily? Well, great. That's how things are supposed to work. But here in Maryland, they just pushed the $15/hr. wage law through (altho

    • Less than $15/hr is less than a living wage almost anywhere, and certainly anywhere that's not an armpit or cesspool. The minimum wage was originally intended to be a living wage. It hasn't kept up with inflation for decades. It should have been tied to inflation. If a business can't pay a living wage, it shouldn't exist in our current system at all. Someone more efficient should have that demand to serve (and exploit.)

      If we had UBI and national health, on the other hand, we wouldn't need a minimum wage at

      • If we had UBI and national health, on the other hand, we wouldn't need a minimum wage at all.

        If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.

        If a business can't pay a living wage, it shouldn't exist in our current system at all.

        In other words, no business can have any jobs that aren't worth the cost of a "living wage" according to drinkypoo. No entry level jobs for teens, for example.

        Actually, minimum wage was never intended to force "living wages". Minimum wage is NOT intended to be a living wage, because not all jobs are worth minimum wage and not all employees are worth minimum wage.

        • Actually, minimum wage was never intended to force "living wages". Minimum wage is NOT intended to be a living wage,

          Poppycock [thebillfold.com].

          Got any other piffle to dispel?

    • But overall, I really dislike this push to make the $15/hr. wage a LEGAL mandated minimum. If a business does it voluntarily? Well, great. That's how things are supposed to work. But here in Maryland, they just pushed the $15/hr. wage law through (although it doesn't take effect immediately, and there are a few exceptions for specific work situations). And already, the feedback I've heard from small business owners is really telling. Either they're starting to look at options to move out of the state and do business elsewhere, or they're trying to find ways to hire fewer people or cutting hours to make up the difference, because they can't stay profitable while paying everyone that as a starting wage.

      The problem out here is, it's already very costly and difficult to run a business. ...

      I know this is getting a little off topic, but my point is just to illustrate the kind of challenges that get put in people's way, when they're just trying to run a successful business that employs others.

      I suspect that, if anything, you are massively underestimating the scope of the problem. Econometric studies show that 64-73% of the differences in cost of living between US states are caused by government policy decisions (The Importance of the Cost of Living and Policies to Address It - Schlomach, 2017).

      Further, I wouldn't be surprised to find a similar percentage of the differences in cost of living not just from place to place, but also from year to year, are also caused by government policy decisions.

      • I have a problem with that conclusion you came to at the end of all of that.

        "It would be far smarter to just have better welfare systems."?

        The more social welfare a government provides, the more it's going to be motivated to apply various taxes and fees to pay for it. And meanwhile, you've created a disincentive to provide as high a quality of medical care as possible. (As always happens when one is employed by the State, or contracted by the State -- there's much less fear of job loss for doing a lesser qu

  • How can they dictate the wage of a contractor, without saying the're becoming a co-employer. I worked like this for a big tech company and this was strictly forbidden. Google doesn't manage contractors, the contracting agency does, including pay. If Google wants to pay them $15 an hour, then hire them and pay them $15 an hour. Otherwise, get ready, law suits are coming...

  • So mommy and daddy can let them out of their basements to go to work. Very nice.

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