After years of rallying by employees surrounding the company's reduced pay and benefits for temporary workers, Google will soon be requiring that the contracting companies it works with offer employees many of the same benefits given to full-time Google staff. This is especially good news when you consider that a whopping 54 percent of Google's employees are part-time or contracted — that's about 122,000 workers.
An internal memo acquired by The Hill states that Google is requiring contracting companies, or "suppliers," to begin offering a $15 minimum wage to its temporary workers and contractors in the U.S. by January, though they'll have until 2022 to implement the rest of the newly mandated benefits.
Those benefits include comprehensive healthcare, 12 weeks of paid parental leave (including adoptive and non-birth parents), at least 8 sick days, and $5000 a year for employees pursuing higher education in the form of tuition reimbursement.
Google says it will regularly audit its suppliers to ensure these new requirements are being met; any companies who don't adhere to these guidelines will no longer "be able to provide talent to Google."
Unfortunately, this new policy won't apply to independent, self-employed contractors, but it does cover "vendor" employees, including cafe and transportation workers.
