Facebook is showing some love for its contractors in the U.S. The social media giant has not only made the minimum hourly wage $15, but it is also going to give a minimum of 15 days of paid leave.
These paid days off include sick leave and holidays for its vendors and contractors based in the U.S. However, only those employees who have done a "substantial" amount of work with Facebook will be able to avail of the minimum wage and paid days off benefits.
Moreover, Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that, as part of Facebook's improved benefits structure, new parents who may not be eligible for paid maternity/paternity leave will get $4,000 as child benefit.
This benefit will give the parents the option to take parental leave and will aid stronger families. The social networking company has been working on implementing the new policies for a while now. Sandberg revealed that initially the announcement was intended for May 4, but possibly due to the sudden demise of the COO's husband, the announcement may have been deferred.
"Effective May 1, we've already put these standards in place for some of our largest support teams at our Menlo Park headquarters," revealed Sandberg in a statement on May 12. "We will be working to implement this program with a broader set of vendors within the year."
To be eligible for the benefit, vendors or contractors need to be based in the U.S. and have a minimum of 25 employees who work for Facebook.
The salary for contractors in Silicon Valley has been much debated. In 2014, Google announced that it would make its security guards permanent employees and have them on its payroll rather than as contractors. Facebook's move could also be a step in this direction.
Facebook will be bearing the costs of the new policies, which are already in effect, even as contractors and vendors increase their payment rates.
It has not yet been detailed how many people the change would affect. The new standards, however, will cover security, food service and janitorial workers.
Photo: Dimitris Kalogeropoylos | Flickr
