NYCPHP Meetup

[Christopher Hendry]

While this is all true, I know of companies contracting overseas firms for
cheap only to end up with undocumented code or documentation in the language
of the country...so this can be just another strong selling point for a
higher rate...

-> There has been a lot of useful info in this thread.  One thing that I
-> didn't see mentioned (besides the hordes of unemployed programmers who
-> are willing to work quite cheaply) is that you are also competing
-> against overseas people - India, Russia, etc.
->
-> I know of one company in NYC who is employing a Bulgarian firm.  They
-> have skilled, competent programmers, and the rate is $10/hour - $10/hour
-> that the U.S. firm is paying out, so who knows what the Bulgarians are
-> getting individually for a salary, but it isn't much.
->
-> There are lots of situations where foreign outsourcing isn't really an
-> option, and in those cases contract programmers can expect to continue
-> to demand decent wages.  But if we invented teleportation tomorrow,
-> plumbers wouldn't command $80/hour any more, because you could teleport
-> in skilled plumbers from Bulgaria who would work for a tenner and then
-> teleport them right back home.  That is happening now with any project
-> that can be outsourced overseas.  So watch out, and really cunning
-> programmers will look for market segments where they *aren't* competing
-> against overseas labor.