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FB worker living in garage to Zuckerberg: challenges are right outside your door
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They gave us their hourly rate in the article.
Nicole earns $19.85 an hour as a shift lead, while Victor makes $17.85
Assuming they work full time they would be making 72k a year.
A house with 4 bedrooms in that area would probably be a multi-million dollar house so they are asking for quite a lot if they want enough wage to live in that area.
Emerson
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That is what 2 people making 17/hr working full time make a year.
You don't actually know what entitlement means, do you?
I haven't lived in one of these expensive areas that people often talk about. I don't see how things could really be as expensive as people make out - as in, $90,000 a year being just enough to 'get by' in San Fransisco, or where ever.
I understand rent and mortage costs might be significantly higher in good areas of these cities, so let's say $2000 a month for a well-kept apartment in a safe area. So let's say $30,000 a year, just to even bump that up a bit.
Are utilities really 10x what they are in cheaper places to live? Groceries and stuff might be a little bit more expensive, but largely these kinds of things are standard across countries. I don't know how seriously to take the 'it's impossible to live on x salary in this city' stuff, but not having lived in these places, I don't really know, so I'd like to hear how this all adds up to $90,000 or there abouts being only just about a decent standard of living and not a shitload of money.
I'm not talking supporting a whole family btw, that's expensive anywhere. I just mean one person trying to keep themselves afloat.
I do hope people realize these CEO's (Musk included) take these small salaries, cause the payout the get from shares and the like are taxed much lower than the salary they'd take.
CopperPuppy
Member
I do have empathy, I just don't understand the solutions that people are proposing.
You'd give them both 150k a year and I don't think it'd be enough to support a family with 3 children in the Bay area.
Damn, this is really crazy.. as someone who lives in MI where 20$ would be plenty to live on the thought that a 20$ an hour job is not cutting it is just mind boggling. 20$ an hour for a worker here is like.. a good paying job, easy answer is get the hell out of SF with your family but I know that's not an easy option.. you can't just pack up your enitre life so easily especially living check to check.
Frozenprince
Banned
I'm sure a $480B corporation can afford to pay it's service workers enough to afford a frigging apartment for a family of five in the bay area.
The necessary amount isn't the issue, because Facebook is a profit generating company, they can easily adjust these workers salaries so they don't have to live paycheck to paycheck just to scrape by.
In Kansas maybe.
Emerson
May contain jokes =>
It's not workable. Even if facebook could afford it (I'm not certain that's true), at a certain point the cost becomes so high that corporations would literally just move their entire operation to a cheaper area.
The outskirts where things are now "cheaper" are getting farther and farther out. When I lived in the bay area 15 years ago people were already commuting from Tracy into SF to work. That's 60+ miles each way, and easily two hours each way depending on time of day.
ClosingADoor
Member
The issue here is just that San Francisco is expensive as fuck. Those salaries for their job are decent enough and in a normal place you could live from that. Just not in that city.
Difficult issue to fix as long as the city simply doesn't built enough houses to meet demand.
Difficult issue to fix as long as the city simply doesn't built enough houses to meet demand.
cr_blah_blah
Member
DizzyCaffeine
Member
Huh. And here I thought I've lived in OC my whole life.
True Savior
Member
Rich people don't give a shit about us. They love to fake they care though. It's even shittier. At least be a honest prick.
A 3 bedroom apartment in that area is around 3-5k a month.
KissDaRing
Banned
Move to the suburbs and commute to work. There problem solved
ghostofsparta
Member
I agree, but that's not happening. They're planning an expansion of 6500 new workers.
If you're not from the area, the closest places to Facebook are East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park, which are low income areas. Every year that goes by, the areas change and you can clearly see high income people move in, but even today it's a majorly low-income community. However, even though they are low-income the rent is still ridiculous.
No one really wins here, and I agree berg's choice of HQ location is a large part of it
benicillin
Banned
Well right now they have a 0 bedroom garage so I'm sure even one bedroom would change their lives.
Are all people you know baristas?
Making over $20 in my area is still just renting for life as a single person, waiting on my girlfriend to finish her nursing degree so we can probably start building towards a home. Mind you we're 30 living in Ventura County. Owning a home here for me still feels like a dream tbh.
Tyraniboah
Member
Where are their coworkers living? How feasible is commuting every day? What do houses cost on the outskirts? I'm all for unionizing, but at what point do you say it's time to move further out? $34 an hour between both parents is enough for a house and a car payment where I live. Maybe it's not so good further out though. For the sake of the children I do hope something gets worked out
Well I'm not sure. And that's my point -- it's super sad that the little girl wants her own room in the house, and I agree that it's a terrible salary for where they are in the states..
However, Zuckerberg could probably save that family, but not the other hundreds of service workers he's currently employing.
Dreams-Visions
Member
What kind of commute options exist in that area? Must be pretty bad if a garage looks like a better option?
I wasn't aware that Paul Ryan was on gaf.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
No. Just ordinary, working class people. Crazy, I know.
Zoe
Member
Wages should not be based upon your family size.
Living on less than $17 an hour in OC?
Vault Dweller 111
Member
Im sure the company would have no trouble filling that job for the exact same salary though. So why double or triple what it currently is?
I mean it sucks, but that's the reality. I get $10 while I'm in school and it's not bad for my living situation. If I suddenly got married and had a kid I wouldn't expect them to raise my salary to $25/hr.
It's not hard to educate yourself about this before posting nonsense numbers.
Average price of a 2 BR apt in San Francisco is $4650 which is $55,800 a year.
Here is some more info: https://smartasset.com/mortgage/what-is-the-cost-of-living-in-san-francisco
A 1 bedroom 500sqft studio available right now is 1900 a month. I mean at a certain point you just have to accept you are going to have to drive if you have a family of 5. Even if they doubled their salary they would have a hard time finding a place to live in that area. Everywhere costs a fortune.
they're contractors. they're not working full time.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
Yes? Do you think everyone is some kind of executive or in the tech industry in OC?
No, but I think the average rent in OC would be < $2k
Racist Californians do not want to build housing for poor people in the little townships. New housing will run the neighborhood's character and landowner's wealth.
Facebook, Google, etc. Would love to build more housing in the areas.
See this dumbass for an exact cause in Palto Alto.
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/07/15/lydia-kou-announces-bid-for-city-council
Facebook, Google, etc. Would love to build more housing in the areas.
See this dumbass for an exact cause in Palto Alto.
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/07/15/lydia-kou-announces-bid-for-city-council
It's not just about wages though. There's probably a whole lot that can be done with regards to housing development, zoning, rapid public transit and so on to alleviate the housing problem in that region which is what is the major driver in cost of living. It's not simply about raising wages, though that likely is a factor.
If Zuckerberg really has any interest in public office then yeah maybe paying a bit more attention to what is effectively right outside his front door wouldn't be a bad place to start. SF and the greater Silicon Valley area is in dire need of reform as the cost of living is simply impossible for most people and only getting worse. They need a solution to this housing and cost of living crisis.
If Zuckerberg really has any interest in public office then yeah maybe paying a bit more attention to what is effectively right outside his front door wouldn't be a bad place to start. SF and the greater Silicon Valley area is in dire need of reform as the cost of living is simply impossible for most people and only getting worse. They need a solution to this housing and cost of living crisis.
But think of the landowners!
You want them to loose wealth or go under water on their mortgages?!
God I hate nimby's. The best way to fix this would be building more housing but that is always blocked by some shitty group. Housing prices will just continue to rise unless some of these silicon valley hq's more to lower cost areas or they are allowed to build more dense housing complexes.
They can take a high salary plus stock options if they wanted to. For Musk and Zuckerberg, I don't think it is the case (like in some situations) where they negotiated a CEO contract by manipulating the category of remuneration. Besides, both Musk and Zuckerberg's companies have faced bad times on the market where a firm compensation would have been better financially.
Mammoth Jones
Member
This. I can't afford to live in midtown Manhattan. Gotta commute.
ghostofsparta
Member
went to her twitter and her first post is a self proclaimed NIMBY post
https://twitter.com/lydia_kou
Facebook is in the suburbs. Where are you getting your information from?
God Dayumm
Banned
You forget they have to pay taxes and Obamacare, so from that 72000 they get to spend much less
Jmanunknown
Member
That is asking way to much for some people empathy is just way to hard their are way to many people who believe in the bs bootstrap mentality that certain people have been using as propaganda.
As for the people in the article themselves they are basically stuck where they are in their jobs because they cannot afford to change jobs or move. So any person who says to these people to just move and commute to work tell me how they they can feasibly do that when they can barely afford food and clothes?
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