In brief: Facebook in 2015 mandated that employees who do contract work for them in the US be paid a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour in addition to other benefits. Since that time, however, Facebook has realized that $15 per hour doesn't meet the cost of living in some areas.

After reviewing its options, the social network is taking additional steps that better reflect local costs of living.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and Washington, D.C., Facebook is raising the minimum wage for contract workers to $20 per hour. In Seattle, workers will see minimum wages boosted to $18 an hour. The new wages will be implemented by the middle of next year, we're told.

For those that review content, wages will increase even more. Facebook said they'll pay at least $22 per hour to employees of vendor partners in the Bay Area, NYC and Washington. Seattle residents will get $20 per hour and those in all other metro areas in the US will start at $18 per hour.

Content reviewers also have access to on-site, trained professionals for individual and group counseling, Facebook said. The social network is additionally launching several new programs and tools to help with content reviewers' well-being as outlined below:

  • We're working with our vendor partners to deliver ongoing well-being and resiliency training. It's important to make sure that every person on these teams has the skills they need to care for themselves and for each other.
  • For the first time, we're adding preferences that let reviewers customize how they view certain content. For example, they can now choose to temporarily blur graphic images by default before reviewing them. We made these changes after hearing feedback that reviewers want more control over how they see content that can be challenging.
  • We're now requiring all vendor partners to provide on-site counseling during all hours of operations, not just certain hours of each shift.
  • We're rolling out a resiliency survey to all partner sites around the world to get a better sense of the needs of our reviewers. We'll do these surveys twice a year and use the results to shape our programs and practices.