Just walked out of a coffee shop meeting where a guy was bragging about paying freelancers $12 an hour

I was at Common Grounds in Portland yesterday and overheard this dude on the phone saying he always offers $12 an hour first because 'someone always bites.' That's less than minimum wage after self-employment tax. Has anyone else run into these bottom feeders trying to set the market price?

3 comments

3 Comments

henryr457d ago

$12 an hour is basically robbery for skilled labor. Did dude even mention what kind of work they were doing? Like, coding or design or writing? Because $12 for a WordPress dev is just insulting. He might be getting "bites" but you know those are desperate folks who probably jump ship fast.

joseph487d ago

Right? "Insulting" is putting it mildly, @henryr45. I half expected the guy to say he's also throwing in a free taco for every hour of work. Honestly though, what kind of skilled labor accepts that? Maybe he's paying them in "exposure" and dreams. At that rate, I'd be tempted to just show up and hit the space bar a few times, then call it a day.

hannahj497d ago

Oh man, I've been there. A few years back I saw a guy posting for a graphic designer at $10 an hour and he had the nerve to say "great for building your portfolio." Like buddy, my rent isn't paid in portfolio pieces. Your mileage may vary but I've never seen a single "exposure" job actually lead to anything decent. It's always the same story, they take advantage of whoever is desperate enough and then wonder why the work is shoddy or people quit after a week. Honestly, at that pay rate they're lucky if they get anyone who can even spell HTML, never mind build a whole site.