[cleandreams]

I live in SF and I have been in and out of the tech industry, so I know the city from both perspectives. (I now work at one of the big tech companies.) So many people outside of the industry work more than one job. They need to. Wages are too low. That is the problem, wages. Focus on that, economists, so ordinary people can get by on one job's wages.

[dvtrn]

Wish there were more comments about this. Like you, I too worked in an industry that wasn’t technology (home repair services, carpenters, electricians and plumbers), and saw it for what it was.

It’s atrocious what some of these people are asked to do and the wages they’re expected to perform at.

But beyond that, even wages aren’t even the entire picture. I live in Chicago. I managed a fleet of workers who not only had to content with a company that paid laughable wages, workers were on their own for parking, vehicle maintenance, equipment and materials, ancillary costs of maintaining their tools.

End of the day the $25 we paid to our licensed and insured electrician translated to $12/hr coming home.

I fought for a year to get those fellas better pay. Our managing company was hearing none of it. The guy who ran the entire operation took home six figures. I know this because I saw the books.

[totablebanjo]

Labor’s been screwed the last 50 years. What kind of six figures are we talking, mid?

[dvtrn]

What kind of six figures are we talking, mid?

The kind that go into his bank account? Is there another kind I'm unaware of presently-I'm unsure how to answer your question here?

[hardwaresofton]

I think the commenter was trying to ascertain just how deep the implied inequality was -- if the guy who ran the entire operation is barely clearing $100,000, then as far as I understand, in the context of San Francisco the owner is struggling as well -- that says something else about the economic situation of the company.

[pitaj]

> Wages are too low.

Compared to costs

We know mainly why costs are too high in the Bay Area, and it's mostly housing. Which is a solvable problem, if only the market was able to expand housing supply.

[snidane]

> if only the market was able to expand housing supply.

If only.. there was more land. Building houses is not the bottleneck. Land is. You'd have to create a 'second floor' of land to mitigate the problem.

[MagnumOpus]

> You'd have to create a 'second floor' of land to mitigate the problem

Or -- stay with me on this -- allow a 'second floor' on top of the current single-floor buildings.

Seriously, NIMBY zoning that doesn't allow for higher-density 5-6-floor townhouse-style development is the issue.

[thatoneuser]

Don't live in a place that you can't afford. If enough people moved away from SF to the Midwest then they'd live comfortably and local companies would have no choice but to increase wages to keep the rest around.