Facebook Announces Site Of Its New Headquarters (Photo : Getty Images)
It certainly pays well to be employed by top technology companies. Besides the hefty salaries, the job comes with perks that are the envy of other employees from different industries.
In Yahoo, Marissa Mayer is willing to pay $100 million a year for workers' three free meals a day, while Apple employees just got free nine-month subscriptions to Apple Music. In Facebook, not everyone would benefit from one perk, but if a staff qualities, the $10,000 housing bonus is certainly a windfall.
To qualify, employees of the most popular social media site must rent or buy a house within a 10-mile radius of Facebook's headquarters on One Hacker Way. The bonus has been offered the last 12 months, employees told The New York Post.
But more than just an added incentive to Facebook staff, the bonus is a reflection of the challenges that tech companies located in Silicon Valley face when it comes to providing housing to its workers because home and rental prices in the San Francisco Bay area are expensive, while the place is already congested.
For some luckier Facebook employees, the bonus could go up to $15,000 if they are supporting families. But beyond the one-off payment, the other bonus to workers who live nearer the company's campus is more time for their families as it reduces their commute time which has stretched to 90 from 60 minutes one-way three years ago.
The one-off $10,000 bonus, however, could easily be used up in three months since the average rental in cities such as Menlo Park is $3,600 monthly, based on data from online realtor Trulia.
But while crime in Palo Alto, according to city data, fell over the years as newcomers - called "los Facebuqueros by locals even if they work elsewhere - rents also leapfrogged and eviction rates rose. To remove pressure from lower-income renters who have been displaced by migrants, several ordinances were passed in December, says Tom Myers, executive director of the Community Services Agency in Mountain View. Facebook, however, has left Palo Alto in favor of Menlo Park.
Besides the bonus, another perk offered by other tech firms, such as investment management technology firm Addepar, data company Palantr and software maker SalesforceIQ, is private buses for young and rich tech workers in Silicon Valley. But again, this too has displaced lower-income residents.
Other perks in Silicon Valley include free plane ticket anywhere in the world for employees of Tilt, a crowdfunding platform, who have been with the firm for one year and free overnight shipment of breast milk for nursing mothers at Zillow, a real-estate giant, reports Unionleader.
