In Silicon Valley it seems popular to just start your own company and capture the value that way, but other fields have solved this issue by unionizing.
careful with the "U word" around here. We don't need no stinkin unions, or any sort of professional association.
I mean sure we don't get OT and too frequently get asked to be in a hellish oncall rotation or some 80 hour a week death march. We like it that way and we don't want to do anything to change it!
No need to accept these conditions. Eg Google and Facebook are always hiring and treat their employees better than that.
(And I don't really see why I would want to join an organization and throw in my lot with people who are not smart enough to take above remedy.)
> Is it possible that there are factors outside of unionization that affect how these workers are paid?
Of course, there are tons of variables. But it's a fact that unionized workers make more than non-unionized workers in the same jobs, that unionized workers are much more likely to have health insurance, that unionized workers are much more likely to have paid vacation and sick time, etc etc.
1) Unionization is easier and more effective when defection is difficult (or impossible, as in some German unions) and heavily punished. As soon as defection pays off, it loses its value.
2) The set of high level executives at large corporations is small and cliquish enough that it is a de facto union, since they can convince boards to bid up each other's prices and punish/shun those who offer their services at lower prices.
The American Medical Association is a great example.
With tech it's the other way around.