oDesk Community - Rate Statistics - Comments

Agency rate

loquela — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:31:33 -0800

Are you saying that 10% is an unreasonable commission for providing a service like this? Do recruitment and outsourcing agencies in your experience claim less than that?

Yes, I was shocked but now I

hanzelhamak — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:14:42 -0700

Yes, I was shocked but now I understand more clearly. Its a competition, nothing more nothing less. It made me smile when you said "the energetic neck of the woods is going to overrun the western world because it knows how to fight harder for a living". I come from a country where everyone fights harder for a living, and I can afford to just bid from $1-$5, maybe I will survive the future.

Welcome to the real world

muntedprof — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:11:57 -0700

It is always a shock for people to look beyond their own back garden fence. Have a read of NY Times columnist Thomas Freidman's book called Flat World to understand that the global economy is changing fast and will never be the same. oDesk is a manifestation of the phenomenon - you can complain about it but you are missing the boat and failing to see the changes all around us that are moving very rapidly. The 'lazy and complacent' western world is only just starting to get a rude shock. The future will be very different from current practices and the energetic neck of the woods is going to overrun the western world because it knows how to fight harder for a living. I can't help but laugh at people with no oDesk hours who post themselves at $50 without first proving their worth - they will not survive in this increasingly competitive world.

Future Rates/Coming Programmer Obsolescence

jlivesay — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:09:44 -0700

If you think this is bad, just envision what it will be like when there are artificial intelligences that will code (or do any other thinking) for free (they are designed as tools so don't have motivation for wages etc). It will start with online development shops that have invested in clustered neuromorphic systems (https://www.stanford.edu/group/brainsinsilicon/about.html) and progress to the point that intelligent systems are common in every home and business within a few decades. These systems will work without breaks or sleep.

At that point, I will have to learn how to suck up to people because I won't have any choice but to go back to working in an office (or somewhere there are lots of people). Although what I will be doing I don't know.

I hope for your own sakes that you understand this is real and not an exaggeration on my part. Intelligent machines will soon be available and happy to do all of the thinking and coding for free.

LOL

ygulyayev — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:21:07 -0700

ha ha ha

Did you know that rates in your country are low exactly because of regulations like that?

nritsche, low rates

beatemorris — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:04:50 -0700

Hallo,

ich bin auch total geschockt!!! Ich habe als Consultant/ Translator $35.00 eingegeben und war überrascht, als ich die preise gesehen habe. Da ist ja hier in Nord Amerika meine Stromrechnung höher als das, was ich verdiene.

Hattest du schon mal Glück mit einem Angebot? Würde mich mal interessieren. Oder kennst du noch eine andere Seite?

shocked the same as most of odeskians

hanzelhamak — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:59:49 -0700

I'm a new member here. I've been trying to get myself hired for these past 2 weeks. I come from a third world country. Everybody knows that we have low rates, and of couse low cost of living. Thats why most of us here migrated to other countries to earn a higher income. I decided to check odesk so that I too will earn more income( and in $$) without leaving my homeland, and I was shocked to see the graphs. The rates here are lower than I expected. Some are even lower than what I am earning here. That makes me think....Should someone or someBody or Odesk regulate the rates?...I mean put some minimum rate for a particular job?...Maybe it would help.

Zel

Silly rates

srothenburg — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:24:09 -0700

I agree - these rates are ridiculous for the serious writer, who has spent years working in an industry, like advertising or marketing, honing his/her skills.
In the end, I suppose you get what you pay for. Wonder what the end product is on some of these jobs? I will not lower my standards and will only work for no less than $30/hour. If that means I have to find work elsewhere - so be it. Good luck to people who are writing for $5/hour. Siobhan, Cape Town, South Africa.

maybe not for me..

gilstrac — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:14:58 -0700

I would have to agree these rates are to low to reflect the real costs of what ever work is being done. I am not sure of the cost of electricity, computers, food and whatever else you need is in other countries. But I suspect the true costs are not understood by the service providers or the costs of service are being subsidized by government, friends or family. Which ever it is, the out come is they will go away eventually.

It just demostrates once again it is more advantageous to be a POC and not a POS.

the global economy

josterholm — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:34:30 -0700

Quote:

Realistic is a minimum of 5 times this amount! What is the target "audience" of odesk? It seems to me like India or eastern european countries.

Welcome to the global economy... where US$10 gets you a family feast in one place, and can almost get one person a decent dinner in another. I am brand new to oDesk, but I was not born yesterday. That a technical writer can offer services for $8-10/hour is a cash cow, apparently, in some world locations, and good for them. But it is lowering the playing field in the first world, economically, and by that I mean the standard of living is being given a swift kick downward. Goodbye American dream.

Congratulations to the wealthy, who will always come out on top, as the middle and lower class folks become one big working (blue or white collar, professional or skilled) class. That expression on people's faces, like a deer in headlights as they view these rates? That's the look on lots of faces come ten years from today, when it is even harder to pull down a livable wage for relevant services in the U.S. We can thank our lucky starts, though, that so far China is only the master of manufacturing, with their artificially lowered money rate. When (not if) they move into the service industry and the professional realm, we'll all be working for Walmart as the catching-up global economy enjoys the fruits of a century of progress.

It is a shame, but even for $10, bad product is bad product. So the only thing to do is sell sell sell your skills and preferably don't cheat by overselling and wrecking it for everyone else. Or nab some venture capitalist money and launch your own overseas professional services company. Or: any openings at oDesk HQ?

On second thought, maybe I am missing my mission: I need to write a futurist series of articles. Or simply a book. Anyone have Richard Florida's number? Love the idea of the creative class, I am a bona-fide experiential type (I believe that's what he calls us), and it ain't easy being me these days. But I will see what's out there, and worse comes to worse, I can always leave my roots and go to the Pacific Rim.

Rant on rates

jgrifffith — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:10:40 -0700

It's pretty clear that we have either a lot of unemployed foreign college students looking for some pocket-cash or I need to move to India and find a way to live on $2 a day.

rates

nritsche — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:32:34 -0700

"If you want U$50.00/hr there are buyers willing to pay it if you convince them your work is worth that."

My suspicion is, that buyers from countries like the US or Europe are looking for cheap workforce here, not willing to consider the place where providers live. So the winner are people from countries where the cost of living is low, so that they don't have to charge much.

Isn't that true?

Another thing: I entered a rate in the hourly rate field (50$) and odesk added another 6 $ or so for themselve! Consider the number of jobs done on oDesk, it seems like they make quite an extreme amount of money with the site!

Don't get me wrong, I don't just like to rant about the site, I think the idea is quite good. But these things just don't seem right to me.

Please correct me if my view is distorted...

Nico

rates

daverobinson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:01:51 -0700

These rates include everything from $0.50/hr data entry jobs to $100.00+/hr programming jobs. Providers charge what the market will bear.

If you want U$50.00/hr there are buyers willing to pay it if you convince them your work is worth that.

Give the site some time and see what it's like.

shocked about these rates

nritsche — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:12:59 -0700

I'm a new freelancer from Germany and I'm quite shocked about these rates... Nobody can work for 10$/hour (~6 Euros!!) in Germany as a freelancer, that's ridiculous. Realistic is a minimum of 5 times this amount! What is the target "audience" of odesk? It seems to me like India or eastern european countries. I think its quite poor if employers from the US or Europe hire the cheapest workforce they can get, not willing to pay according to their own standard of living.

I'd be happy for any feedback on these thoughts!

I noticed that too

dmartel — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:16:07 -0800

I also noticed that multiple categories (and in some cases all categories) show up in a profile.

Let me as a question - is it possible to break this out by say job versus profile?

For instance: if 20 new jobs are in "Programming" and 20 new jobs are in "Writing" can you show the rates that are being charged for them?

That data might be even more interesting to explore!

Doreen

Rate Statistics

jbreinlinger — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:27:11 -0800

Shows the average hourly rates of all hires on hourly jobs by week based on Start Date of the job. Note that the week starts on Monday, so data may be more volatile early in the week as it is an average of a small number of hires.

Shows rate distribution for all hires made on oDesk for hourly jobs only over all time.

Shows all currently registered providers grouped by listed hourly rate.