Facebook Pledges to Raise Wages, Add Mental Health Training for U.S. Contractors

After a series of bruising exposes about the working conditions of its contract employees, Facebook announced Monday that it will raise wages and provide increased mental health resources for its U.S.-based contractors by the middle of next year. The tech giant announced that the minimum wage for contractors in San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C., will be raised from $15 to $20; in Seattle, it will be $18. Content moderators, who spend their days reviewing graphic, violent imagery, will receive $18 to $22 an hour based on their location. Those content reviewers will also be able to temporarily blur graphic images before reviewing them, and will have access to counselors at all hours of their shifts. “Content review at our size can be challenging and we know we have more work to do,” Facebook representatives wrote in a statement. “We’re committed to supporting our content reviewers in a way that puts their well-being first.”

The decision comes after multiple outlets revealed that content moderators are routinely traumatized by the graphic images they review. The company said that they’re working on developing “similar international standards” for overseas contractors—although its not clear what those standards will be or when they’ll be released.