Dec 24, 2015
New U.S. Census Bureau data show the Bay Area is booming, but rising housing costs and poverty rates are making the recovery a spectator sport for many people trying to pay their bills while eliminating their personal debt. Incomes have increased, but rents have jumped way more, and owner-occupied housing has dropped in the region. For most people, it’s hard…
Dec 7, 2015
Santa Clara County Initial data on gender/race pay equity & direction on pay equity in County contracting policies Commission on the Status of Women’s (CSW) Pay Equity Study: In advance of the forthcoming pay equity study that will be undertaken by the Office of Women’s Policy and the Commission on the Status of Women, County Counsel and Administration have conducted…
Dec 4, 2015
Today marks end of former-Mayor Chuck Reed’s pension reform fiasco. The City of San Jose has now agreed to a settlement of the dispute surrounding Reed’s Measure B with City workers. The agreement covers all but one of the nine non-public safety unions, which represent 3,000 City employees. The terms of the settlement are similar to deal made with the…
Dec 2, 2015
By a vote of 5 – 2 last night, the Sunnyvale City Council chose to join Mountain View in setting the new regional minimum wage standard for the Bay Area – a minimum of $15 per hour by 2018 for all workers. “I’m a free market guy, the government should only step in when the free market is failing… its…
Nov 12, 2015
Apple, Cisco and eBay contractors have been banned from the H1-B Visa program for wage theft. The contractors, Scopus Consulting Group Inc. and Orian Engineers Inc., both from Sunnyvale, were cited for short-changing workers approximately $84,000, according to a recent Silicon Valley Business Journal article. Scopus Consulting Group Inc. and Orian Engineers Inc. will have to pay back wages to…
Nov 5, 2015
The California Faculty Association (CFA) announced that 94.4% of its membership voted to authorize CFA’s Board of Directors to call a strike if the contract negotiations with California State University (CSU) management fail to produce a fair deal for the faculty and staff on the 23 CSU campuses. The talks, which began in May of 2014 and are in the…
Oct 29, 2015
With its decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2018 and tie future wage increases to the regional San Francisco Bay Area Consumer Price Index (CPI), Mountain View has set a new regional standard. To keep pace, Silicon Valley cities will need to allow their minimum wage increases to be driven by either the national or…
Oct 28, 2015
The latest victory in the fight to raise the wage occurred last night when Mountain View became the first city in Santa Clara County to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018. The vote was 5-2 with Mayor John McAlister and Councilmember John Inks opposing the ordinance. The City Council agreed to raise the City’s minimum wage…
Oct 15, 2015
The on-demand industry is not only affecting employment and workers, but also consumers and communities. One particular segment of the on-demand industry, the short-term rental of homes as hotel rooms via Airbnb, HomeAway, FlipKey and a number of others, is already having significant negative impacts on cities and neighborhoods. Short-term rentals worsen Silicon Valley’s housing crisis by taking land that…
Since 2000, most full-time wage and salary workers in San Jose have seen a drop in their earnings, according to the newly released National Equity Atlas. From the period of 2000-2012, the bottom 80% of full-time workers saw their earned income stagnate or fall. The low-wage workers suffered the largest drop, with earnings for the bottom 20% of full-time workers…