Odesk Regulating the Market - PLEASE FIX THIS
rodrix 12 posts
Hello Odesk,
I have noticed that now there is a MINIMUM Fixed payment and MINIMUM hourly rate.
Why is this? I think you should leave the market regulate itself and that is why Odesk was good in the first place.
Now what affects me personally is that the minimum number for **minimum preferred hourly rate** (under the Job Posting-> Advanced Options-> Preferred Qualifications-> Hourly rate) is now $1 and that the ***minimum** for the maximum preferred hourly rate is now $3. That means that the range can be set as low as $1-$3.
I was shocked to REPOST a job posting and that when I clicked on repost, it did not work, because I had a minimum of $0.5/h to a max of $1.5/h (that before was accepted) which is now forced to be from $1/h to $3/h.
I do not care what is fair in other countries or whatever someone else thinks it is acceptable for any job position. This a global community, with global currencies, different budgets, different wants and needs. What can be unfair for someone in a certain country with a certain currency, can be the most fair for someone in a different country with a different currency, an vice-versa. People not only have different currency, culture, cost of living, but also have different expectations. Please understand this from both sides: buyers and providers.
I have some ***particular job positions*** where 0.5$/h to 1.5$/h is MY budget and what I am used to pay locally in MY country for that type of jobs.
By enforcing this restriction of a MINIMUM, you will be making Odesk more oriented to US, Canada, UK and other strong economy countries, LEAVING BUYERS of "the 3rd world" OUT of your site.
I am not sure if this is what you are looking for, with this new change.
I hope you please eliminate this restriction, so buyers like me can keep using Odesk across all their tasks.
I wish you all the best, and with only this exception, I think that Odesk is doing a great job. Thank you,
Best regards,
Rod
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pkalimuthu 474 posts - India - Joined Mar 07 2008
Not only oDesk, but every other online marketplace has some regulation and they change those regulations too from time to time!
As far as I know, oDesk did not do this change to make it more oriented to buyers from US, Canada, UK and other strong economy countries, but to make itself more profitable from every assignment (guess what would be oDesk's share on a $0.50 an hour job?).
BTW, I'm an active buyer too in oDesk.
rhenden 8 posts - United States - Joined Aug 06 2009
Minimum wages are necessary in all industries due to buyers having unrealistic expectations from their workers, and would in all likelihood support slave labour. It may be orientated to buyers from the USA (and from what I've seen Australia), but the majority of the providers seem to be based in India and other developing nations where it is feasible to work for a dollar a day/hour. For us US providers oDesk is still a long way short of providing a minimum wage that is liveable. Point in question, San Antonio, TX has a minimum wage of $7.25, but its minimum liveable wage is $10.91 for a 40 hour week. See http://www.universallivingwage.org/
oDesk is promoting the Walmart effect which wiped out our local stores and helping wipe out talent in the Western Hemisphere.
rhenden 8 posts - United States - Joined Aug 06 2009
Further to my original reply above, McDonalds and similar organisations are paying $10 an hour in Austin, TX, and about $9 an hour in San Antonio, TX. Most data entry jobs here pay around $10 an hour, with no education needed. Where is the attraction for industry professionals to work for less than their education and training is worth? Buyers and oDesk regulations should represent this by regionalising their pay. I.e. If a company is based in, say, Tucson AZ, then they should have to offer a pay rate that is realistically comparable for Tucson AZ and the particular skillset that they are requiring. If a company is based in Australia then they should offer a pay realistically comparable with their local market forces.
This would benefit buyers and providers from all across the globe. Developing world based providers would get a realistic pay, as would (for example) US and British providers. In fact it would encourage more education and involvement with the profession. Buyers would get the confidence of knowing that they are supporting a system that improves the desire for education and involvement in the profession, and reap the benefits from the improved skillsets, competition and education that come from such a system.
rickard 90 posts
I'm since 6 month on this site and have NEVER seen a job posting like this! Most data entry jobs went for anywhere between 18 cents to 2.22 USD per hour!
2.)If a company is based in, say, Tucson AZ, then they should have to offer a pay rate that is realistically comparable for Tucson AZ and the particular skillset that they are requiring. If a company is based in Australia then they should offer a pay realistically comparable with their local market forces.
- You are doing MILK-MAIDS calculations!!! You must be from TX?
( comparing apples with pencils etc...)
Your statement implies that YOU are also willing to pay USD 100 for the T-shirt made in Bangladesh, because its imported and designed by a company from San Antonio, TX. (which has to pay their Bangladeshi supplier US wages).
Furthermore, You are willing to pay USD 110 , for a similar T-Shirt, if the importer is based in Austin, TX, because the local wages are higher ( and the company had to pay the Bangladeshi company local wages). Maybe you are even willing to pay USD 200 for a similar T-Shirt if you bought it in NYC?....
And of course, you would love to do data entry work for a Chinese company, which wouldn't be allowed to pay you more then 00.001 cent an hour (because that's the local wage in China)???
I love your suggestions! - You remind me of politicians(who used to smoke pot, but never inhaled)!
Cheers,
Rick
rhenden 8 posts - United States - Joined Aug 06 2009
I'm since 6 month on this site and have NEVER seen a job posting like this! Most data entry jobs went for anywhere between 18 cents to 2.22 USD per hour!
2.)If a company is based in, say, Tucson AZ, then they should have to offer a pay rate that is realistically comparable for Tucson AZ and the particular skillset that they are requiring. If a company is based in Australia then they should offer a pay realistically comparable with their local market forces.
- You are doing MILK-MAIDS calculations!!! You must be from TX?
( comparing apples with pencils etc...)
Your statement implies that YOU are also willing to pay USD 100 for the T-shirt made in Bangladesh, because its imported and designed by a company from San Antonio, TX. (which has to pay their Bangladeshi supplier US wages).
Furthermore, You are willing to pay USD 110 , for a similar T-Shirt, if the importer is based in Austin, TX, because the local wages are higher ( and the company had to pay the Bangladeshi company local wages). Maybe you are even willing to pay USD 200 for a similar T-Shirt if you bought it in NYC?....
And of course, you would love to do data entry work for a Chinese company, which wouldn't be allowed to pay you more then 00.001 cent an hour (because that's the local wage in China)???
I love your suggestions! - You remind me of politicians(who used to smoke pot, but never inhaled)!
Cheers,
Rick
I am actually not from Texas, but from the UK. I merely live in Texas. I strongly believe that globalisation of prices is destroying local creative markets.
Yes the average data entry job here in Texas pays about $10 an hour. That is still low compared to unskilled labour jobs in England which average out at about $15 to $20 an hour. (From personal experience, I was earning the equivalent of $10 an hour to shift potato sacks back in the early 1980s.
I believe that if a company is based in China, they should try and use local labour first, and pay local labour according to the regional standards. That is part of ensuring that the skills and talents are developed locally, part of ensuring that cultural and company ideologies match. For example (with the ideologies) most American companies (and Americans) are hated in the UK because they try to enforce company's ideological viewpoints which are not appropriate to the local way of working and the local culture.
I would be more likely to pay a local based company for a product made, designed and produced locally (which is totally viable - I have several friends and contacts who create and produce T-Shirts locally and price them around the 20 to 25 USD mark), and personally I try to avoid buying products from companies who pay the outsourced workers a few cents a week and then sell them to US consumers for hundreds of dollars. This category includes most US major companies.
I also strongly believe that companies which expect $20 worth of labour for a cost of a few cents are unethical, and although unfortunately unions seem to be illegal in Texas and the most of the USA, deserve union and worker action to rectify this.
I remind you of politicians who used to smoke but never inhaled? What the fuck?
rickard 90 posts
- I agree to a certain extend. I explain some more in detail below.
Yes the average data entry job here in Texas pays about $10 an hour.
- When you used the word "here", I assumed that you are talking about Odesk!- Not everybody lives in Texas.
-It's your choice to live in Texas. Furthermore, I believe that the cost of living is simply higher in some countries, so, obviously you will have to earn more money. If you were living in Dubai, you would be most probably also not satisfied with USD 20 per hour, simply because the cost of living is extremely high.
- It is up to you to higher your standard of qualification, to be able to earn your desired hourly rate.
- Obviously, you don't know what you are talking about and have most probably never been to China. THEY DO USE LOCAL LABOR!!! Factory workers are SLAVED, for 30-100 USD per month! They work and live in the most inhuman conditions, next to the factories. They have no protective work gear, 12 hours shifts, drink contaminated water, have no pension funds and no health insurance.
- Yes, sure. Ensuring that local talents are developed locally means:
Ensuring that the local Chinese slave labor does not earn enough to live nor die. So, they won't even have the choice to go anywhere else. Then, we hire their little 5 years olds, to work in the neighbor factory.
- If you have such good contacts, then why do you not work for them?(At a fair local hourly wage)
Why do you complain that a data-entry worker in Texas makes only USD 10 per hour?
Why do you come to Odesk and struggle to get a job?
- I agree 100%.
- You seem to have a narrow minded view. You only think about yourself & the 1st world countries. It has most probably never even occurred to you that "globalization" does not only have an impact on 1st world countries citizens hourly wage, but globalization does even KILL people in third world countries. Our 1st world countries governments and corporations create the policies and give the loans which can never be repaid. Our consumerism, our desire for higher corporate dividends, our desire for more, better & faster consumer-goods(trash); makes the Indian debt-laden coffee-bean farmer accept a BULLET IN HIS HEAD AS HIS SALVATION!!!
stephaniekunder 52 posts - United States - Joined Jun 20 2008
You're very delusional if you think $1 an hour is an appropriate pay rate for the United States. As was already described, our minimum wage ranges from $7-9/hr depending on state...And that's for employment that doesn't require an education. When I read about how they put these "minimum wages" on oDesk I laughed. Oooooo...$1/hour...Whoop-de-do.
csycip 17 posts - Philippines - Joined Oct 15 2008
http://www.odesk.com/jobs/Forum-Posters_~~d56c8727f4563a23?sid=20002
This is also delusional...
stephaniekunder 52 posts - United States - Joined Jun 20 2008
He sounds like a jerk. Disregarding his silly offer of payment, I wouldn't work with him based on how he comes off on his description.
csycip 17 posts - Philippines - Joined Oct 15 2008
More than a jerk.. really..
rhenden 8 posts - United States - Joined Aug 06 2009
Due to unrealistic buyer expectations and unrealistic wages offered, as evidenced so often on the jobs board, I am leaving oDesk. I cannot afford to work for the average rates set here.
*contact information removed by admin*
wallyd 14 posts - Spain - Joined Dec 29 2008
its no point discussing this topic with a person who works for 0.5 or 1USD per hour...they cannot be very smart right? let alone explain them why this is wrong and destroys the actual market...