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Silicon Valley Wages Have Dropped for All Except Highest-Paying Jobs, Report Says
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Nine out of every 10 Silicon Valley jobs pays less now than in 1997, despite one of the United States' strongest economic booms and a historically low unemployment rate that outpaces the national average.
While tech workers have thrived, employees in the middle of Silicon Valley's income ladder have been hit hardest as their inflation-adjusted wages declined over the past 20 years, according to "Innovating Inequality?," a study from UC Santa Cruz's Everett Program for Technology and Social Change and the labor think tank Working Partnership USA, which examined the economic impact of technology companies.
Technology workers saw a median wage increase of 32 percent over the past 20 years, the study found. But Silicon Valley workers in virtually all other areas lost ground during that time.
Meanwhile, the region's economy has been booming. Since 2001, the amount of money generated per Silicon Valley resident—the area's per person GDP—has grown 74 percent, the study found. But a smaller share of that wealth is going to workers, according to the study. In 2001, about 64 percent of the money generated in Silicon Valley went to workers. By 2016, that was down to 60 percent. The drop translated to $9.6 billion—about $8,480 in potential pay and benefits per worker—that instead went to investors and owners, according to the study.
From The Mercury News
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