Bay Area Groups Are Also Backing First of Its Kind ‘Pay Transparency for Pay Equity’ Act Which Would Require Pay Transparency for Staffing Agency and Contracted Employees. Tech Giant Google Employs More Contracted Employees Than Direct-Hire; Advocates Say Pay Transparency Is First Step In Addressing Wage Gaps
Media Contacts: Roberto Clack, Temp Worker Justice, roberto@tempworkerjustice.org, 312.450.1972
Secondary Contact: Dave DeSario, Temp Worker Justice, dave@tempworkerjustice.org
Tuesday, July 26th, San Francisco- Over the last several months a coalition of women’s rights, racial justice, and wall to wall labor organizations have advanced the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act, SB1162 in the California legislature aimed at creating pay transparency & equal pay for staffing agency and contract work in tech and other key Bay Area industries. Reporting by the New York Times in 2019 has found that tech giant Google was employing more temporary staffing agency and contract workers than direct hires reflecting a growing trend of subcontracting in tech and other industries.
Meanwhile, Oakland-based TechEquity Collaborative’s research has found that contract workers in tech make 75 cents on the dollar compared to their direct hire counterparts while the workforce was disproportionately people of color, women and non-binary. Organizers will host their conference outside the Accenture staffing agency offices, a major supplier of ‘temporary’ staffing agency workers to local tech firms including Google. Like warehousing in southern California, organizers of the event are concerned the Bay Area and Silicon Valley are becoming ‘temp worker communities.’
The national organization Temp Worker Justice will be releasing a report at the press conference, “The Temp Worker State” detailing the size and growth of staffing agencies in major state industries like warehousing, manufacturing, healthcare and tech. “For a long time, staffing agency usage has undermined labor standards in traditional California industries in warehousing and manufacturing, but now we are seeing this happen in white-collar professions like tech and nursing,” said Dave DeSario, author of the report and Associate Director of Temp Worker Justice. “We want to see the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity act pass as a way to even the playing field for contract workers, but we also want to see big corporations like Google and Facebook do more direct-hiring in their workforce.”
On May 24th, the California senate passed the act 27 to 9 which would require employers with more than 250 employees to report pay and demographic information on their temporary staffing and contracted workers as well as to list salaries as part of their hiring process. The bill is now headed for a showdown in the California state assembly in August where it’s facing opposition from the American Staffing Association and other business interests.
“Due to occupational segregation and structural racism, people of color are more likely to be hired into temporary staffing and other types of subcontracted jobs than permanent, direct-hire jobs in the same industries, and these subcontracted jobs pay substantially less than direct-hire jobs, which contributes to the wealth gap for communities of color,” said Laura Padin, Director of Work Structures at the National Employment Law Project. “SB1162 is a critical first step in calling attention to the pay disparities for women and people of color in temped out jobs, giving workers the pay information they need to negotiate fair compensation from their employer, and ensuring corporations treat all of their workers —both direct-hire employees and temporary and other subcontracted workers—equitably.”
What: Press Conference for Stable Jobs and Equal Pay for California Staffing Agency Workers!
When: Tuesday, July 26th, 12pm
Where: Accenture Staffing Agency Offices, 415 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 (In Front of Salesforce Tower)
Who: Alphabet Workers Union-Communication Workers of America, National Employment Law Project, TechEquity Collaborative, California Nurses Association, Temp Worker Justice and the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Coalition
Founded in 2019, Temp Worker Justice is a national organization dedicated to winning stable and good paying jobs for millions of staffing agency workers across the country.
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