About Half of Google's Workers Are Contractors Who Don't Receive the Same Benefits as Direct Employees (bloomberg.com)

Every day, tens of thousands of people stream into Google offices wearing red name badges. They eat in Google's cafeterias, ride its commuter shuttles and work alongside its celebrated geeks. But they can't access all of the company's celebrated perks. They aren't entitled to stock and can't enter certain offices. Many don't have health insurance. Bloomberg: Before each weekly Google all-hands meeting, trays of hors d'oeuvres and, sometimes, kegs of beer are carted into an auditorium and satellite offices around the globe for employees, who wear white badges. Those without white badges are asked to return to their desks. Google's Alphabet employs hordes of these red-badged contract workers in addition to its full-fledged staff. They serve meals and clean offices. They write code, handle sales calls, recruit staff, screen YouTube videos, test self-driving cars and even manage entire teams -- a sea of skilled laborers that fuel the $795 billion company but reap few of the benefits and opportunities available to direct employees.

Earlier this year, those contractors outnumbered direct employees for the first time in the company's twenty-year history, according to a person who viewed the numbers on an internal company database. It's unclear if that is still the case. Alphabet reported 89,058 direct employees at the end of the second quarter. The company declined to comment on the number of contract workers.

Comments

So what??

[SuperKendall]

I have been a contractor myself for many years, sometimes in huge groups of other contractors working for companies with employees.

I have also been on the other side, working for companies as an employee in teams that worked alongside large teams of contractors...

I think it should say a lot as to which situation is better that I have ended up working as a contractor for years instead of working as an FTE. If for no other reason than, overtime work really loses the sting when you are paid hourly...

Yes I lack some "benefits" a company might offer but I get more freedom in how to make up those "benefits". Because I work on contract I can take more vacation time than almost any company would allow. Because I work contract I can choose health care options that make sense to me and stick with them rather than being shifted around in changing company plans. And It's also lots easier to untangle myself from a bad contract than a bad employer... not to mention being more free to speak my mind since as a contractor I am generally free of politics (though on larger team of contractors that still can be a factor, but not as much as it is for employees).

Industry Wide

[darkain]

This isn't a "Google" problem, this is an industry-wide problem. What larger tech company ISNT doing this?

What company isn't doing this?

[rsilvergun]

this is Uber & Lyft's entire business model (albeit taken to the extreme). Companies have broken the social contract. There's no longer any stability for workers. That plus the death of Unions and the end of collective bargaining is why wages are declining even though productivity is way, way up.

Time for a New New Deal.