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

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.)

Re:People are greedy. News at 11

[Luthair]

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.

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.

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:60% of Tech Workers wfeel

[garcia]

I worked in a unionized environment for 10 years; I make 6x as much as I did then.

My biggest issue with unions, aside from their political lobbying and, previously, mandate I pay them a percentage of my salary to give me what they consider to be adequate representation is that should, for some reason, make the same as or less than the amount my coworker does when they are less educated, less talented, less able, and less efficient just because they've been there longer than I have.

This is what comes to mind when someone says union to me.

Re:60% of Tech Workers wfeel

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to drive tow trucks in an inner city. Then I was an auto mechanic. At work I've been shot at, assaulted, crushed, cut, and burned. My hands and arms are covered in scars and there's still some metal in there.

Now I sit in a climate controlled cubicle on an ergonomic chair and make ten times as much money.

Not that I'd turn down a raise, but overpaid/underpaid are relative terms. The times I feel underpaid, I have to remind myself of the days working on tractor trailers in the summer heat of the deep south.

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.