More Than 60% of Tech Workers Feel They're Underpaid (cnbc.com)

gollum123 writes: Tech workers are the envy of labor market -- they earn some of the highest starting salaries and often command top-notch benefits. But money doesn't always buy satisfaction. Entrepreneur reports that tech workers in major American cities earn an average of $135,000 and yet, a survey of 6,000 tech workers conducted by workplace app Blind and reported by Quartz found that over 60 percent feel they aren't being paid enough. The survey also breaks down how tech workers feel about their pay by company. The five tech companies with the highest percentage of employees who felt they were underpaid shared one important characteristic: They were all founded before 1998. Cisco, Intel, Expedia, VMware and Microsoft employees were the most likely to say that they did not make enough money. Cisco had the highest percentage of dissatisfied employees, with 80 percent telling Blind that they did not feel adequately compensated. Facebook employees, on the other hand, were the most like to say that they are overpaid, with 13.8 percent saying that they felt their employer was overly generous.

Comments

People are greedy. News at 11

[sjbe]

Entrepreneur reports that tech workers in major American cities earn an average of $135,000 and yet, a survey of 6,000 tech workers conducted by workplace app Blind and reported by Quartz found that over 60 percent feel they aren't being paid enough.

I think this is the Dunning Kruger effect in all it's glory. Tech workers are routinely stricken by it, especially here on slashdot.

Productivity has doubled in 40 years

[rsilvergun]

but wages declined 12-14%. _Everybody_ is underpaid except the ruling class. We gave up our Unions and with them collective bargaining. Rather than fix a little minor corruption we threw baby out with bath water and we're paying the price.

By the hour, the wages are not as high.

[darth_borehd]

If I calculate the amount of time I actually work rather than look at my yearly salary, I am making less than a lot of non-technical unskilled labor jobs.

Putting in 50-80 hours a week degrades your quality of life and takes much more valuable time away from from family, but cutting down to only 40 hours a week degrades your productivity and puts you on a track to being fired. Tech workers also take less vacation too.

Because IT is a cost center at most companies, the workers are under more pressure from management to prove themselves essential to the bottom line.

Half of them are below average

[goombah99]

I would think that it would be normal for 50% of people to be paid less than the median salary for any given set of identical positions. so 60% of them feeling underpaid yet having the same job description as their peers who are paid more is lcose to what you might expect.

When Jeff Bezos walks into a bar

[DalM]

... "on average" every one in the bar is a billionaire.

(see "earn an average of $135,000" for more bad statistics.)

Unions savaged industry

[alternative_right]

Unions made American industry unstable with strikes and transferred money to organized crime. Costs rose and quality plummeted, so industry outsourced.

If the workers had simply pooled resources to buy voting shares in their company, they would have come out much farther ahead.

The real reason that wages are so low is that there are too many people here with more coming each day. Law of supply and demand, remember?

I think this is the core of it

[alternative_right]

"Underpaid" can mean a few things including "I'm not paid enough for the shit I have to put up with."

IT requires seeing some of the worst of humanity, working long hours, and facing constant competition from management which just wants to cut IT costs.

Maybe a solution is to find other ways to cut IT costs, like automating some of these mindless tasks...

No Shit, Sherlock

[tsqr]

Cisco, Intel, Expedia, VMware and Microsoft employees were the most likely to say that they did not make enough money.

No kidding? Cisco, Intel, and VMWARE are located in Silicon Valley, where cost of living is astronomical. Expedia and Microsoft are in Bellevue, WA and Redmond, Wa, where the median cost of a home hovers around $900K.Toss in excessive unpaid overtime, and a person would be crazy not to consider themselves underpaid.

What's the goal of the union?

[goombah99]

The goals of that IT workers union are something we all can agree on:

OVERVIEW
This document investigates the needs of Information Technology workers and the likely parameters of an IT Workers Union.
GOALS
1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit
2. Sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Historically the goals of Unions have not always been about pay. the first Trade Unions (beyond mere guilds) in the USA were the Train Worker's union. Their the goals were about quality of life and longevity of careers. Their promise to the bussinesses was that in return they would be able to develop a more professional class of tranin worker and decrease expensive accidents. This actually did work out pretty well. Train workers were scheduled so they would return home every couple weeks rather than having to flop in railroad owned hotel-bars. The bars in the company owned flop houses were closed down. Merit based pay was insituted. And train wrecks did decrease and on-time schedules got better. It was only later that the collective bargaining began to focus on having worker's capture a larger slice of the profits. But even then Unions recognize that growing the pie was as important to wages as the slice of the pie they got. However like all things some weird dynamics set in, in which collective bargaining at Ford would set the wage rate at GM too. All ford cared about was making sure any price rise they incurred was felt by GM too and vica versa. Pass it along to the consumer. So Unions and management became less focused on keeping the company competitive as they could both pass along the costs. They paid dearly when foreign imports ate their lunch. As a results Unions got a bad name.

But the idea that a union can foster career development that benefits an industry as opposed to treating workers as disposable cattle is still valid.

However Millenials dont' seem to subscribe to the idea of career longevity. So Unions aren't going to happen in the IT industry.

Re: What's the goal of the union?

[bluefoxlucid]

Individual workers don't have bargaining power because they can't control the entirety of the bargaining unit. Your employer can replace you with an individual with better terms. Unions bargain a contract which covers all workers of a certain class: if the employer hires someone new, that worker is also covered by the bargaining contract.

In other words: individual bargaining--YOU--carries zero weight because we can hire someone else and fire you, negotiating lower salary and benefits with your replacement. Collective bargaining carries total weight because we can fire you and replace you with someone who gets similar salary. In an IT union, salaries would likely be more-flexible, and locked into pay grades: we can't replace an $80k worker with a $60k worker because the position is $75k-$85k. The union, however, also negotiates a just-cause replacement, so they can't simply replace you with someone cheaper anyway.

Re:What's the goal of the union?

[Anonymous Coward]

However Millenials dont' seem to subscribe to the idea of career longevity.

That's because there are no jobs left that provide long careers. Everything these days is short-term contract work with at-will employment rules designed specifically to cut people off if there's even the slightest hint that keeping them on will cost more than absolutely necessary, and no companies are willing to foster talent. Most Millennials would kill for job security/longevity like their parents had, but ironically the jobs with that kind of longevity/security are mostly filled by their parents who refuse to retire.

IT had their chance to unionize in the 80s, but the hotshot geeks decided that the chance for slightly higher paychecks was worth burning away all protections for those afterwards. Millennials never even had a chance to unionize, and now the industry is globalized to the point that even thinking about it is practically grounds for termination.

Re: What's the goal of the union?

[Shotgun]

And, that is EXACTLY how it should be. I have the right to sell my labor to the highest bidder. The companies have the right to seek the workers who are willing to work for the least. Unions are nothing but an extortionist mob.

Re:60% of Tech Workers wfeel

[Austerity Empowers]

How much is workers being paid over the national median, but having to live in extremely expensive, high cost locations such that a six figure salary actually doesn't mean much.

Re:People are greedy. News at 11

[tlhIngan]

Actually, I should also say this is why most tech workers believe they are underpaid as they know of people in silicon valley earning twice or more their salary.

I think if you ask anyone, they'd think they're being underpaid. Not just tech people, but anyone. From the small business owner who barely makes minimum wage (running a business is hard work), to the janitors who break their backs nightly mopping floors to the CEOs who always believe they need more.

I don't think there's anyone who would answer that they make enough money right now.

How do you buy stock

[rsilvergun]

without money

And what happens when you buy stock in a company like General Motors and they fold the legal entity rendering the stock worthless? Or how about Hostess where they sold the brand and machinery so they could raid the pension fund and bust what was left of the Union?

Workers can't absorb the losses that ruling class have. And they can't buy off politicians the same way to get bail outs. The working class needs to organize or they lose. That's exactly what's happening now and what every single economist (who doesn't work for a right wing think tank) says is the cause of declining wages.

As for organized crime, would you shut down our banking system because sometimes somebody robs a bank? Or would you throw the bank robber in jail? The whole organized crime thing is a red herring to distract from the points I made above.