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When tech giants like Amazon expand, other companies don't just worry about losing business. They also fret about hanging on to their employees.
Some of the industries that have defined New York City and the Washington, D.C., area will face increased competition for talent when Amazon sets up shop in their territory, with plans to hire 50,000 new workers amid the tightest job market in decades.
The expansion comes at time of fierce demand for computer programmers, mobile app developers, data scientists and cybersecurity experts. Salaries keep rising as companies from banks to retailers seek new technology professionals to expand their online presence and automate operations. Particularly in demand are software developers, with many switching jobs each year. Even some banks have eased up on their dress codes to project a hipper image.
Good news, ye techies working on Wall Street! Soon you might be able to wear jeans and t-shirts to work.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @08:36PM (9 children)
I'm going to agree, except for the "fair wage" bit. If the wage is accepted without coercion or fraud or similar, then it is fair. Employees want more, and employers always want less, and we should disregard both complaints when assessing what is fair.
Companies do need to pay people what they are worth. Of course, how are they to determine what people are worth? Simple: attempt to pay a bit less than expected, adjust upward if required, and adjust downward if possible.
Employees do the same. Ask for lots of money. If it is easy to get a job, try asking for more money. If it is hard to get a job, try asking for less.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday November 20 2018, @10:19PM (5 children)
If the employers are whining because employees are leaving for more money elsewhere or refusing to accept employment for what is being offered, then it is obvious the fault is entirely on the employers for failing to offer a fair wage for what the work demands. Underpaying employees because you can currently get away with it is just as bad, as soon as there is an alternative employees will jump ship even if you match the higher wage because they know what a cheap bastard you are.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @10:47PM (4 children)
Each employee and possible future has their price. Some, of both high and low skill, are not worth that price. They go elsewhere. Nobody should be bothered by this.
Again, what is this "fair wage" of which you speak? Do we need communism to measure it?
Somebody demands $1,234,567 per year to do ordinary Java programming. If the company doesn't pay that, you think "it is obvious the fault is entirely on the employers for failing to offer a fair wage for what the work demands"? Really???
That isn't how economics works. That isn't how anything works.
An employer has to draw the line somewhere, refusing to pay what is demanded. Some employees will leave, and that is OK. Maybe they will get paid what they demand at some other company. Maybe they are just dumb for not accepting a reasonable offer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @11:51PM (3 children)
Come on, you know the lowball offers from companies presenting you an offer worth half what the job description is worth when compared to other companies.
Now if you are already working at an underpaying company, it could be that job responsibilities grew over time while pay did not or that the responsibilities didn’t match what they said they would be when you accepted the offer. In any case, of course it is up to the employee to fix the situation by leaving for something better. It is still a problem that many, many companies have unrealistic expectations. This is how they eventually get those indentured servants from the government from overseas. See? Can’t find anyone to take this job for the salary we offer! Help us, govt!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:09AM (2 children)
Does a person accept the job offer or not?
If they accept, then a fair price has been set. If they don't accept, then no fair price exists. Either way, this applies only to that particular person paired up with that particular employer.
Foreign workers are a huge problem exactly because they change the typical fair price. The companies have realistic expectations, not unrealistic expectations, if this option is available.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:25AM
How about "If a union of workers accepts the offer ..."
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:34AM
Your definition of “fair” is not the commonly used one.
You are going by the definition favored by a liberal (in the European sense, i.e., “laissez-faire) economist.
To avoid equating a moral term with your laissez-fairy worldview, I would use the neutral and more descriptive term “going rate”.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday November 20 2018, @11:38PM (1 child)
I have a different take on this.
The whining is hypocritical in the extreme when upper management rakes in obscene pay. I have zero sympathy for this whining and blind faith in the employment market so long as companies can somehow afford to compensate upper management with 7 figure or more annual pay. Upper management is sick with greed. And we know they do all they can to manipulate the employment market-- scream for more H1Bs, demand that schools train more engineers, collude with each other to blackball uppity job seekers, etc. Even in 2008 in the depths of the Great Recession with 25% unemployment, their whine machine was still vomiting up this propaganda that they just can't find enough good people. I read that the ratio of highest pay package to lowest used to be about 40 times, and now it's over 400 times.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:14AM
From one level of the corporate power tree to the one above or below, there is a pay difference that can be expressed as a percentage. The more levels you have, the bigger the difference between top and bottom.
There is no need to impose a price ceiling. The only thing required is to split the companies up. This has the nice side effect of breaking monopolies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:21AM
Bills to pay, mouths to feed, homelessness to avoid -- one party to the transaction comes into it from an extremely weak bargaining position, so weak that what you call "fair" is just sugar-coating on what is in reality, coercion.