Silicon Valley subcontracting makes income inequality worse, report finds

A new University of California study has found that subcontracted jobs have expanded rapidly, offering low wages to predominantly black and Latino workers

Subcontracted jobs have grown at three times the rate of all private sector jobs in Silicon Valley over the past 24 years, exacerbating the region's gaping income inequality, according to a new report from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The tech firms whose campuses dominate Silicon Valley are known to employ armies of subcontracted employees as janitors, cafeteria workers, gardeners, security guards and shuttle drivers. Researchers found that growth in subcontracted industries has outpaced overall job growth since 1990 - 54% compared with 18%.