How Silicon Valley CEOs Conspired To Suppress Engineers' Wages 462
Oneflower writes "As we discussed last week, a lawsuit is moving forward that alleges widespread conspiracy among the CEOs of Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and Pixar to suppress the wages of their tech staff. Mark Ames at Pando explains how it happened, and showcases some of the emails involving Steve Jobs and other CEOs. Quoting: 'Shortly after sealing the pact with Google, Jobs strong-armed Adobe into joining after he complained to CEO Bruce Chizen that Adobe was recruiting Apple’s employees. Chizen sheepishly responded that he thought only a small class of employees were off-limits: "I thought we agreed not to recruit any senior level employees. I would propose we keep it that way. Open to discuss. It would be good to agree." Jobs responded by threatening war: "OK, I’ll tell our recruiters they are free to approach any Adobe employee who is not a Sr. Director or VP. Am I understanding your position correctly?" Adobe’s Chizen immediately backed down.'"
Re:How does this keep salaries down? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes..... Because all smaller shops are given money trees they can harvest infinite yields from when they form their articles of organization for their company/corporation.
Re:re. Affects all engineers... (Score:5, Funny)
He won't.
Someone is gonna jailbreak him after a day or two.
Re:So, cue up.. (Score:5, Funny)
So said Adam Smith, but we all know "Smith" was just a pseudonym for Karl Marx.
Re:So, cue up.. (Score:4, Funny)
And how would you judge whether a company is underpaying you? By comparing what the company offers you to the *market price*.
That bit gets a little tricky. In some sense I do compare my salary to the market price. But lets say the market price for a software job was $20k/year. At that point I would consider being a freelance software engineer or starting my own company and hiring a bunch of talented engineers for $20k/year. If the market price were $20k/year, fewer people would go to school to become engineers, and this would lower the supply and increase demand for engineers.
Everyone making this calculation in their head has an effect on market price.
No single entity controls the market price on anything. Engineers have an effect. CEOs have an effect. Universities have an effect, etc.
What the CEOs stand accused of is colluding to depress the market price for engineering labor.
And I agree that that's what they did, and I agree that they probably succeeded to some extent
What I am saying is that I don't think they had a large effect. I think they had the effect that you might expect a small cartel to have. Maybe someone will publish a study showing all engineers industry wide make 20% less because of this deal, but I doubt it, and I made this doubt public.
Re:So, cue up.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:re. Affects all engineers... (Score:4, Funny)
can't wait to see Jobs spend the rest of his natural life in prison over this one.
Ha, well if there's a god, he's certainly in hell. He's probably in the epic prick VIP area, right next to Hitler. And there are no handicapped spots for him to park his Porsche in there.
Re:So, cue up.. (Score:1, Funny)
It doesn't just happen in communist societies, but also in over-regulated societies as well.
Then why not say "over-regulated", instead of smearing an approach you oppose with an association with communism?
Fair enough.
I only mentioned communism because I see the US moving in that direction rapidly.
In the direction of communism, or the direction of over-regulation?
Both. By over-regulating, the US government is gaining more and more control over the means of production. For example, coal/nuclear regulations allow the government to have power over electrical generation companies. The US gained more control during the US bank bailouts (and subsequent regulation of all banks) and automotive company bailouts.