Tech:NYC Digest: October 21

Tech:NYC Digest: October 21

October 21, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Thursday, October 21, 2021

In today’s digest, WFH may cause $100M+ drop in city sales tax, internet credits for NYC students are going largely unused, and how remote work is impacting NYC tech worker salaries.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 4,233 (-435)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,045 (-86)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 43 (+9)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.2 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 86.3 percent 

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 73.2 percent 

Today’s latest: 

  • As part of NYC’s new vaccine mandate for all municipal workers, Mayor de Blasio is offering a $500 bonus incentive to everyone who gets their first dose by the Oct. 29 deadline. (CNN)

    • Gov. Murphy, however, said New Jersey has no plans to follow the same strict mandates for the state’s teachers and city workers. (NJ Advance)

  • A new report from NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer estimates that city sales tax revenue will decline as much as $111 million annually as a result of people working from home. (Washington Post) 

    • On the other hand, statewide tax collections since April surged to $7.2 billion, $1.8 billion more than projected. (NY1) 

  • A little-known temporary federal program offers families with NYC public school students discounted internet and device credits, but a small fraction of eligible households have signed up for it. About 75 percent of the $3.2 billion fund is still available. (Chalkbeat)

  • Mayor de Blasio, alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced a commitment that the pension funds’ investments will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, as well as reach $50 billion in climate solution investments by 2035. (amNY)

  • And New Yorkers are finally fed up with the helicopters.

In other reading:

  • Mixing COVID vaccines? What you need to know about mix-and-match booster shots. (Washington Post)

  • Water's Soul: Dedication, grand opening for 80-foot sculpture in Jersey City (ABC New York)

There have been dozens of headlines about the hiring spree in tech right now, and with remote work opening up even more options for future employees, how companies think about talent retention is being transformed. (Crain’s New York)

One big variable: Pay. According to a new report from job search website Hired, the average tech salary in NYC came in at $151,000, a one percent decrease between June 2020 and June of this year.

  • Hired CEO Josh Brenner says remote work is partly to blame, but so is industry demand: “Companies are hiring more junior candidates—who have less experience and receive lower salaries—to meet the high demand for tech talent.” 

Brenner predicted average salaries in New York would tick back up as companies standardize pay policies for remote workers post-pandemic.

  • In a survey of 1,200 tech workers included in Hired’s report, unsurprisingly, a majority said salary bands shouldn’t be tied to cost of living in the places remote workers choose to live.

  • Companies that choose that approach could face increased turnover, and 74 percent said they would start looking for a new job if their salaries decreased due to remote work-related adjustments.

Beyond pay, companies are increasingly expected to be more competitive with benefits. Some tech workers are even willing to trade base pay for better benefits.

  • Across all levels of experience, the most desired benefit was more control over their work schedule. PTO and physical health benefits ranked high, as well. Among older tech workers, childcare and parental leave benefits became more important.

In other reading:

  • COVID means remote workers can live anywhere. So where’s ‘anywhere’? (POLITICO)

  • Sometimes the best leadership move is to stop talking (Protocol)

  • 360Learning, a New York-based corporate learning company, raised $200 million in funding. Investors include Sumeru, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and Silver Lake Waterman. 

  • B12, a New York-based online platform for professional services firms, raised $15.7 million in new funding. Tola Capital led the round and was joined by Breyer Capital, Naval Ravikant, and General Catalyst.

  • Volante Technologies, a New York-based cloud payments and financial messaging company, raised $10 million in growth funding from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.

  • October 22: Virtual: FutureProof Tech Summit, with Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, Twitter head of ethical AI Rumman Chowdhury, Lerer Hippeau investor Meagan Loyst, and more. Hosted by the Startups & Society Initiative. Register here.

  • October 28: In-person: NYC: Reborn Summit, with Tech:NYC executive director Julie Samuels, Common founder and CEO Brad Hargreaves, MTA acting chair and CEO Janno Lieber, and others. Hosted by the Manhattan Institute. Register here.

  • November 8: In-person and virtual: TechDay Founders Summit, with The Fund general partner Jenny Fielding, Eniac Ventures co-founder Nihal Mehta, Republic head of venture growth Cheryl Campos, and others. Admission is by application only. Register here.

What if you got trapped inside of your office’s Slack workspace, and Slackbot took over your corporeal form? That’s how TechCrunch describes the premise of a debut novel from Brooklyn-based writer Calvin Kasulke, which was written entirely in Slack messages. It’s going on the book club list! 

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