Facebook paying workers to move closer to HQ

New York

FACEBOOK Inc is offering employees at its Silicon Valley headquarters at least US$10,000 to move closer to the office, a reflection of the challenges many tech companies face in the increasingly expensive and congested San Francisco Bay area.

To qualify for the payment, which the social networking firm started offering in the last 12 months, according to current and former Facebook workers, employees must buy or rent a home within 16 kilometres of the Facebook campus at One Hacker Way, a desolate strip of road overlooking a marsh about 48 km south of San Francisco.

Some Facebook employees with families to support could earn a one-off payment of US$15,000 or more for housing costs.

Facebook's efforts, along with similar programmes at some other technology companies including investment management technology company Addepar, data company Palantir and software firm SalesforceIQ, a unit of Salesforce.com Inc, could help ease a major source of tension in San Francisco: an influx of young, wealthy tech workers who commute to Silicon Valley on private buses and often displace lower-income resid…