In a significant measure that would benefit a large workforce, especially women, the social networking site Facebook is extending minimum wages and other benefits to its contract workers.

Facebook is ensuring that its contractors receive important benefits, including a $15 minimum wage, 15 days' paid leave, and financial support for the birth of a new child.

The conditions apply to people who do "substantial work" for Facebook but are employed by another company, so long as that company is based in the US and has at least 25 employees working with Facebook, The Verge tech site reported.

Presumably, if a company won't comply with these rules, Facebook won't work with them. The changes are already in place for the "largest support teams" at Facebook's Menlo Park campus.

"We will be working to implement this programme with a broader set of vendors within the year," Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a blog post.

The contract workers had been pushing for these changes for a while now and the trend is starting to spread across Silicon Valley.

Facebook said that part of the reason for doing this is that research has shown that "adequate benefits" lead to a "happier and ultimately more productive workforce".

Sandberg also wrote that it's an important change for women because they make up "two-thirds of minimum wage workers nationally," making them "particularly affected by wage adjustments".

With IANS