Recode, October 22, 2018: Inequality in Silicon Valley is getting worse: Wages are down for everyone but the top 10 percent
For nearly 20 years, Silicon Valley has led the nation in economic growth. But most of its workers have been excluded from reaping the rewards of this boom.
Nine in 10 workers in the California region make less than they did in 1997 after adjusting for inflation, according to a new report. The study shows a pattern of income inequality on tech’s home turf that’s even worse than the national average. Authors of the report point to an increasing concentration of company profits going toward the salaries of a select few — largely, high-skilled tech workers.
Middle-class workers in Silicon Valley are being hit the hardest by stagnating wages, seeing their earnings go down by as much as 14 percent. For those at the lowest rung of the income ladder, incomes have gone down by about 1 percent. Unlike in Silicon Valley, nationally, median and very-low-income earners have still seen some wage growth, even as the rate of that growth has slowed down in comparison to high-income earners.
Meanwhile, tech workers in the Valley have seen their income go up across every bracket — with the highest gains in real wages at the 80th and 90th percentile of tech’s income earners, at around 38 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
To improve workers’ wages across the board, the report calls for local and state government to support workers’ rights to organize, adopt better labor standards for subcontracted workers, increase taxes on corporate headquarters and provide affordable housing.
With more political debate around how big tech companies pay employees and impact the communities they’re headquartered in — most recently seen through the political pressure placed on Amazon to raise its minimum wage — we might very well see more of a public debate over income inequality in years to come not just in Silicon Valley, but at tech companies across the nation.
