I recently came across a job post on a freelance bidding site. Is this what the world has come to? No wonder I can’t win a bid… Where’s a good bidding site??
“i need a full time design to design my site. this is full time work not part time you must only work on my project and nothing else. i pay $12 per day i pay weekly. $12 * 6 days a week * 4 weeks a month = $288 per month. It is php + mysql work. Work is monday to friday between 9am to 6pm california time. Only bid if you can work during my hours california time. Bid $30 for the first 2 days work.”
Not sure what defines slave labor but given that this is a full time role, set hours with nothing else permitted it seems like it would qualify as an employee position which requires minimum wadge and benefits. Not something I’m an expert on but I can’t see how anyone could be considered a contractor given the requirements and expectations.
Most freelance websites are like that… polluted with fake jobs, low bidding eastern nation people giving up on a decent wage just to outbid their competition. I call them the bottom dweller websites of the web. It’s not slave labour but it’s taking advantage of people for sure, the cost of a service should be based on the quality of service, not on how much you can squeeze out of people. I avoid the “digital sweatshops” like elance and guru like the plague.
That is laughable at best. That’s why I haven’t wasted any of my time on the freelance sites, save 99Designs.com, and after getting bet out of contests with logos that where clearly designed with GIMP or paint even, I have stayed away from them as well.
Most are real, that’s why I basically stopped freelancing.
Problem is, people post that 30$, the guy asks for a “x site”, and then people give them some stolen code from some other place, and call it done.
Then, when the buyer complains, escrow releases the 30$ since the “x site” conditions were meet (even if the site is unusable).
Then, the retarded client doesn’t lean from his mistake, and posts the add again.
Problem is, this became a mass phenomenon a few years back on some sites…
Ex: see all the custom coded shopping cart projects with the winning bid of 50$.
You get what you pay for… as simple as that. If somebody’s looking for dirt cheap code monkey why would you even want to work for them? Personally I prefer to work on higher end projects (higher than $12/day at least :D). Of course with some of my personal in-house projects I’m working for less than that!! I did some math a few months ago on my personal labor on a side project. At the time (1 month after the project launched) I had pocketed a little under $0.10/hr for my labor At that price $12/day sounds pretty good!!!
believe it or not, in some countries where labor are extensive. this kind of offer is still considerable. however, the quality of work and possibility of long-term relationship is arguable. big fishes will swim in big lakes instead of cramming in small ponds.
I don’t think it is a slave labor. It depends now if the programmer will now accept the job at a low offer. He is looking for an overseas programmer because he knows that somehow someone will take the offer.
I always see job postings like that when I look a t those sites they kind of annoy me so I don’t look at those sites much.
It makes me feel a little better to know that most people that get bids for jobs that cheap usually get ripped off. Most of the time the get stolen code, stolen graphics, templates presented as “custom”, get their deposit stolen, etc.
When you look for bids that low you are basically buying stuff form a 3rd world alley way, not nice well educated work just stolen crap from dodgy people.
i have seen and been to lots of country where programmer gets $200-$300 for working 11 hours a day…
(i can see huge team in those country even fighting for it…)
so i think this is not true statement…
esp now a days some indian starters and bangladeshi starters do work for even less…
Notion is $288 …and where r u…?
if you are in europe or us,may be u will bid farewell to programming and rather work as porter…
if you are in some asian(relatively low icome) and other countries,288 dollar account for almost 21 to 22 k local currency…they can live with 4-5k local currency that way infact they are saving…
so they will fight for it…
so this is what outsourcing has been all about now…
(if buyer gets $288 worker in one region,he may not offer you higher for same work considering nationality of programmer as what he need is just work to be completed…)
Well I just want to say that i am not against freelancing but the thing is that it’s also effecting the market.
Now more companies post their work to these freelance sites and those who done certifications or have studied from a good university, have a hard time to find a job with good salary.
$288 is low even in third world countries. I am from the Philippines and I think it is still considered as a third world country. I have a co worker which is a php programmer that gets around $800/month. She started at $600 almost 2 years ago. So to answer your question, yes I am sure and I know.
well,i am talking in generalizing the market?
ie current status or trend of the market or average in market.
If we go to specific cases,well even in third country(may be poorer than philiphinnes) i have friend who earns 3000$ per month but at the same time i should not forget that i have some frens who are working for 250$.
So main thing here is,in market i can find lots of $300 php programmers in these economy(i can find many),which makes us conclude may be $300 is not less in these economy.
(It is not my conclusion but analyzing market trend)
Yup i agree,because of inflation in asain countries,may be we can add $100 to that ie make $400…and i can say in $400 we can find lots of php programmers in these employee(atleast i can do it )
At that price $12/day sounds pretty good!!!