Silicon Valley’s economy is booming. Yet nearly 9 in 10 jobs here pay lower wages today than they did 20 years ago.
Why? Our new study, Innovating Inequality?, finds that the tech industry has developed business models that concentrate wealth by systemically shortchanging workers and communities.
Released in partnership with UC Santa Cruz Professor Chris Benner and the UCSC Everett Program, the study finds that Silicon Valley’s workers have produced the fastest per capita economic growth in the nation, but those huge profits overwhelmingly end up in the hands of a small group of investors and CEOs.
Across the country, cities are bending over backwards to emulate Silicon Valley. But big tech doesn’t mean widespread prosperity — unless workers and communities have the power to ensure that everyone who contributes to tech shares in its success. It’s time to rewrite the rules so workers and communities get a fair return on their work.
