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Comment by Apocryphon | Hacker News Reader

There's rumblings of dissatisfaction already. Anti-ageism, anti-sexism, anti-sexual harassment, anti-terrible working conditions (see Amazon scandals, video game industry), all the way to stuff like anti-open office and anti-whiteboarding complaints. Also that despite relatively high pay compared to other industry, tech workers are not being paid commensurate to the profit they bring their companies. Badly structured equity deals. Golden handcuffs.

Could tech workers actually unite and do something about it? Uncertain. But there's causes for it.

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All your anti-X examples are valid issues, and most of these large companies are very actively (and publicly) trying to improve those metrics. Google, Facebook, and other unicorns are going to great lengths to improve equality in hiring, compensation, and working environment. I see no reason to believe that won't continue, due in part to increased internal pressure.

However, none of those efforts are going to substantially increase their costs or reduce their market share. Their tech worker demographics may shift, but overall income inequality will remain.

"tech workers are not being paid commensurate to the profit they bring their companies" Isn't this true of every company that's not a cooperative of some type?

That's true - I think employees would be generally inclined to organize with specific pay/work conditions in mind (though many tech workers are highly skilled enough that they could more easily achieve those goals by going to another company, rather then going through the long-term commitment with one company that a union contract implies).

But by compensating employees heavily with equity, companies have made it so that many Bay Area tech company workers would be giving up any hope of buying a house if they successfully organized in a way that diminished their employer's dominant market position (and the profits and high stock price that come with it).

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