90% of people working in Silicon Valley found that real income decreased compared with 1997

By Dave

It seems that people's livelihoods are improving in the United States due to the economic boom and the low unemployment rate, but the economic boom does not necessarily reflect the actual life. In a survey of residents living in Silicon Valley, it is clear that the actual income amount is decreasing as the rate of increase in prices is higher than the rate of increase in income.

Nine of every 10 Silicon Valley jobs pays less than in 1997
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/18/silicon-valley-wages-have-dropped-for-all-except-highest-paying-jobs-report/

The University of California at Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) and the think tank concerning labor "Working Partnership USA" investigated the reality of workers working in Silicon Valley. Calculating the wage rise compared with 1997 by the inflation rate found that the income of workers in technology work increased by an average of 32% since 1997, while that of other workers It turns out that the income of the person who gets work is decreasing.

The graph below shows the actual situation. Looking at the percentile when arranging the target by income, we can see that the income of workers located in the 50 th percentile has decreased by more than 14% compared to 1997. As can be seen from the fact that nine of the ten bar graphs are red, the income actually increased substantially in the past two decades is only the residents of the whole tenth percentile, and the rate of increase is It is less than 1%. Moreover, among employees of technology companies, there seems to be someone who does not belong to this top 10 th percentile.

Since 2001, the economy has grown significantly in the Silicon Valley area, and the GDP growth rate per inhabitant shows an extremely high growth rate of 74%. However, there is a reality that the wealth is not necessarily distributed to the workers. As of 2001, 64% of the money earned by the entire Silicon Valley was distributed to workers, while the value decreased to 60% in 2016. This decreased amount of 9.6 billion dollars (about 1 trillion yen) is considered to have been handed over to investors and corporate owners.

Professor Chris Benner of UC Santa Cruz said, "It is surprising that sales and wealth generated in this region are unbelievable, but it does not function as an economic model for the majority of the population," I am talking. According to Mr. Benner, major technology companies such as Google and Facebook have a very dominant position in their respective markets, and a lot of money is concentrated on investors and some top employees And that.

The influence extends to the life of residents who are in non-technology work in Silicon Valley. Prices are rising for everything in Silicon Valley, and among them the cost of housing is so high that it is pressing down on living. Many of those who work as teachers or firefighters can not live in the area where they lived until then and there are cases where they are forced to move to a less expensive suburb, It seems that there is an adverse effect that those who are supposed to be able to live can not live there.