The Problem of Low-Wage Employees

[#1]

Hello friends, I would like to share with you a situation that I noticed recently. And I'm not saying this to insult anyone. I just want to know if we can find a solution.

In the dialogues between us in a few jobs I bought, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc. They say that they get work done for 1 to 5 dollars from countries. And sometimes even an employer who pays a total wage of 5k in newly shared projects states that they are only looking for employees from these countries. While sending an offer, the customer inevitably chooses the cheapest person and I am speaking personally, I can't even compete for the price.

What are your views on this situation? Can't a minimum limit be set for each job and department?

[#2]

No, it can't, because freelancers on Upwork are from all over the world and are willing to work for very different rates. What you should do is set your rate to whatever you want and not accept any projects below this rate; you're a business owner, not an employee, so you can make whatever decisions you want. Nobody can force you to work for low wages, so let those jobs go to another freelancer if you're not interested.

[#3]

[Edit: Decided to remove this post!]

[#4]

Thank you for your responses. Unfortunately, as in every job, there can be difficulties in this business as well.

[#5]

It is relative.   People in US with your skillset would complain that you are ruining their ability to get work!

[#6]

Freelancers with low rates are usually the ones who complain that other freelancers' rates are too low.

[#7]

In return for all these, different lower limits can be determined for each project and its subject. This would be a great boost, at least for beginners.

[#8]

I would advise you to just stick to the prices that are reasonable for you there would be definitely people who will hire you for your skills.

[#9]

the customer inevitably chooses the cheapest person

I don't believe that to be true at all.

[#10]

Some clients do, and then they learn the hard way that you get what you pay for...

[#11]

This may not apply to companies.. I have now taken 3 jobs in total, 2 of them finished and all provided by a single employer. When I applied for the first project, I had never gotten a job at UpWork, and the first project had a budget of $30. I said I would do it for free (5usd), I just wanted positive feedback from myself. When I applied, there were 20-50 offers and I got the job 10 minutes later. It was all strategy and I was rewarded for doing my job so well. I'm sure I'll get a lot more business if I keep this up.

[#12]

You do not have enough jobs to make a statement about anything other than your personal experience, and with only three jobs, there is not much data available because they are all from the same person.

Offering free work for a good review is a violation of the Terms of Service. Never do that. If you have the skills  - charge for them. If you don't, you will fail.

You don't know why you were hired. You can't say strategy had anything to do with it. You need more jobs before you can analyze strategy for getting jobs.

[#13]

---

Emre A wrote:

When I applied for the first project, I had never gotten a job at UpWork, and the first project had a budget of $30. I said I would do it for free, I just wanted positive feedback. When I applied, there were 20-50 offers and I got the job 10 minutes later. 

---

Right - so you offered to do your first job for free in return for feedback (which is a terms of service violation, by the way), and that's how you got started, but you don't want anybody else to be able to charge low prices in order to get their first jobs? How is that fair?

[#14]

I know the rules. I mean free, I said I'd do it for $5. 

[#15]

You stated "free." Free and $5.00 are not equal.

[#16]

Since the amount was really little for the work to be done (for me) I compensated it for free. The job is already done and their payments appear on my profile. I don't know that work was done on UpWork for 0 dollars. And I didn't ask for a positive review from the customer. I made up for what I wanted from myself. Thank you for helping me with the topic I started.

[#17]

---

Emre A wrote:

I know the rules. I mean free, I said I'd do it for $5. 

---

That wasn't my main point. You were willing to work for very low pay in order to get started on Upwork, but now you don't want anybody else to be able to do the same thing. 

[#18]

Believe me, Christine, I don't want that at all. I have a successful profile on another platform. But as a new member to this platform, I searched a lot of content in this forum. I reviewed UpWork's instructions. I realized that beginners have no choice but to do cheap labor. Because no one would naturally consider hiring you because they haven't seen a positive work history. That's why I shared my views on this subject and wondered about the experiences of more experienced people. I had questions like maybe a lower fee limit can be specified for each project. But Ashraf has enlightened me greatly above.

[#19]

re: "Because no one would naturally consider hiring you because they haven't seen a positive work history."

You can post an impressive portfolio.

[#20]

I wouldn't go around blabbering on a public forum that you worked for free in exchange for a great review. 

[#21 · Accepted solution]

There are tons of people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, or India who charge 4-5 times your hourly rate, for them you are the problem ... for them,  people who charge what you are charging are spoiling their market and ability to get hired at their rates...see?  

You are somewhere in the lower middle tier... those who charge very low do not complain and those who are in the upper tier do not complain...

Like Christine said, you are your own boss so get to choose what project you want to work on you are not supposed to bid on every project that matches your skills and experience, consider other factors while sending the proposal like what is the client offering, what is client's payment history like what rates he hires FL in your area of niche, total spend of the client... etc. 

I've never worked with clients with low or tight budgets...I like to work freely...the moment I sense the client may have a very tight budget, and it is often evident in their job post, I skip and do not send my proposal. See? it's really that simple try to understand what the client is offering and if it does not meet your expectation skip it! 

[#22]

I think this was the answer I was looking for. Thank you for enlightening me and for this kind reply Ashraf.