"I think they're not taking advantage of the freelancers. They're taking advantage of Upwork."
I love that comment, but they are taking advantage of both.
There are reasons there are minimum wage laws and Upwork's policy of allowing wages as low as $3 per hour is actually pretty disgraceful.
It would be wonderful, in Ronald Reagan Reasoning, if all the employers in the world believed in trickle down economics in which they paid fairly simply because they wanted the very best workers money could buy. But we all know that is not the case. There is an entire global perspective in which employers from every corner of the planet (does a round planet have corners?) pay the least amount they can. You know that; everybody knows that.
I recently argued with a client about his pay rate. His rationale was simple: He could get away with it, so he choose to do so. I told him slave owners used the same reasoning.
Sorry to inform some of you, but humans do not always act in society's best interest -- especially -- not incidentally, although that, too -- when it comes to matters of money.
Ronald Reagan preached that government was too big and that we could all prosper and live peacefully by dint of human volunteerism. Have you seen a lot of billionaires donating money to re-build Puetro Rico? Or rebuild after the Great East Japan Earthquake? No. They tend to concentrate their philanthropic efforts on supporting the local opera house, tax write offs that benefit themselves coming and going.
Yes, there are exceptions. And, yes, it is rich folks who create and run governments to protect themselves from the tsunami of common sense rising up from the swamps. And, yes, communism has some serious flaws -- among them, the rich folks tend to pack up and leave. Nevertheless -- where was I? -- decency is often upheld by laws, not by pipe dreams.
That said, we're entering the bitcoin universe, which means that wages in New York now balance out with the cost of living -- rent, food, shelter and medical expenses in the Philippines, Peru, India, Germany, Cyprus and Puerto Rico. Graciously, I think, Upwork recently bowed to pressures and allowed that clients who wanted "US Only" applicants for their jobs could filter out the rest of the applicants. That makes some sense. But did Upwork also connect that to a U.S. minimum wage policy? Can you filter out all the applicants who don't live in the United States, but still pay $3 per hour for those jobs?
I don't know the answer to that. But this is where the rubber meets the road. Upwork should comply with the laws at the very least.
😉
