| >Of course, creating “good jobs” entails costs. Managed by Q’s workers get an “above market” wage, plus full medical benefits. “They are the same benefits that our programmers and engineers get,” Mr. Rahmanian said, because “we didn’t want to create a company that had a divide between people that worked in headquarters and the others.” That's just common sense. If you pay the same salary that some outsourcer pays you're looking at a high turnover that will be more of a headache and cost factor than 3-4k extra a year above the average wage for someone in customer support for example (which is a tiny amount compared to engineer salaries anyway). >Munchery, a dinner delivery service, pays drivers a base wage that exceeds the minimum wage, plus their driving expenses, plus tips. Taken together, it comes out to about $23 an hour in San Francisco, far higher than most other delivery jobs. Those who work more than 30 hours a week also get health and retirement benefits. I don't know about Munchery and will give them the benefit of a doubt, but usually companies that offer full benefits for 30+ hours (don't they legally have to do this anyway in SF?), they just cut anyone off at 29 hours. Also the "taken together" "wage" is highly misleading if it includes costs of gas and all the other expenses that one has to pay for a car, in a city where one doesn't even necessarily have to own one. Basically the whole story is about common sense, as min wage or slightly above contractors obviously don't tend to be very loyal or excited about their work beyond lip service, as pretty much anyone doesn't see this as a long term situation and will just switch to the next best thing whenever possible. Employment contracts on the other hand come with notice periods, non compete etc. that will make switching jobs a lot more of a hassle and make anyone think twice if they really want to do it. |