Facebook sets $15 hourly minimum wage for contractors

Facebook (FB) is adding its weight to a national campaign to raise pay for low-income workers.

The social networking firm is setting a $15 hourly minimum wage for the employees of contractors and vendors, while also mandating that they get paid sick time and vacation.

"Women, because they comprise about two-thirds of minimum wage workers nationally, are particularly affected by wage adjustments," wrote Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, in a blog post Tuesday. "Research also shows that providing adequate benefits contributes to a happier and ultimately more productive workforce."

At a daily briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday cited Facebook for setting an example of leadership on the issue in the private sector. "We don't see companies like Facebook doing this for charity, they think it's good for business."

The upgraded compensation standards cover contractors and vendors that "do a substantial amount of work" for Facebook in the U.S., Sandberg wrote. Beyond setting a wage floor of $15 an hour, the benefits include a minimum 15 paid days off for holidays, sick time and vacation.

Facebook is also requiring that contract workers who do don't get paid parental leave receive a $4,000 new child benefit. That will give "both women and men the flexibility take paid parental leave, an important step for stronger families and healthier children," Sandberg said.

The new standards, which took effect May 1, are already in place for some of Facebook's largest support teams at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company will implement the program with a wider range of vendors within the year.

The federal minimum wage in the U.S. has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009, with a lack of congressional support dooming several bills to raise it. Most recently, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington State, proposed raising it to $12 over the next five years. But the measure stands virtually no chance of being enacted, given it has no support from Republicans who hold majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate.

The roadblock to higher pay on Capitol Hill isn't stopping individual states and cities from hiking their minimum wage. Twenty-one states raised their minimum wages in January, benefiting more than 3 million workers. Seattle enacted a $15 per hour minimum wage, the highest in the country, in April.

On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the creation of a board to determine whether fast-food workers in the state are adequately paid, a move that circumvents state lawmakers who rejected an increase in the state's minimum wage.

The momentum behind higher wages has drawn support from the "Fight for $15" movement, a campaign of fast-food, retail and other lower-paid workers that have held rallies in cities around the U.S. and college campuses in support of higher wages.