NYCPHP Meetup

[Justin Dearing]

Rada,

Sorry for coming on so strong. I generally follow these lists for the
technical discussion, and not the solicitations for work. I get
annoyed when people don't let the market take care of lowball offers
like this. You are right that people on this list in general command a
better than $10.00/hr fee, and that's about living wage in the NY
area.I know a security (as in rent a cop) company that pays people
about that much to watch construction sites, and many of them are
immigrants that are completely illiterate in both English and their
native languages. So I do appreciate how little $10.00/hr is.

That being said, I started out programming for $8.00 an hour when I
was hired to do clerical work. It was a benefit to both parties. It
made their operations more efficient. It helped me to get a help desk
position for more money, and lead me down a path to earning my current
salary doing something I love. Without the crappy jobs I would not
have ended up in my current good one. When I was at the stage of my
life where I wasn't good enough to get paid a proper wage to program,
I preffered to make a substandard wage programming to making a
substandard wage doing something I didn't like.

Regards,

Justin Dearing
http://www.ohloh.net/accounts/1193

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Justin Dearing <zippy1981 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rada,
>
> She did say it was a student and you get what you pay for. She could
> do much less than $10 an hour if she went to rent a coder and this
> student probably couldn't get better than $10 an hour if he or she was
> working for this person.
>
> If this student no longer can do the work then one can assume they are
> making better than $10 an hour. If no one is willing to do the work,
> at that rate she will be forced to pay someone a higher rate. As a
> photographer, she has to hire models, assistants, makeup people etc.
> She's well aware of the costs of labor.
>
> Now if some 16 year old kids want to give it a go at $10 an hour I'd
> say more power to him. It will probably take him three times as long.
> Its not taking any food out of my mouth. I do business with people
> that are willing and able to pay my rates, and I don't begrudge those
> who deal with those jobs below my rate. I would have never had the
> experience to be able to command my current salary if it were not for
> me taking jobs that paid little and demanded too much.
>
> Regards,
>
> Justin Dearing
>
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:34 AM, -- rada -- <radalapsker at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Below are current Cut-off Wages for computer specialists from the New York
>> State Department of Labor. These are not some extravagant rates. These are
>> rates that the NYS DOL considers so low that if you are unemployed and
>> someone offers you work below this rate, you can refuse the job without
>> losing your unemployment insurance. Needless to say, nobody with a brain
>> will work for cut-off wages, these are just examples of absolute rock-bottom
>> rates.
>>
>> Occupation Cut-off Wage
>> Computer Programmers $31.77
>> Computer Software Engineers $35.79
>> Computer Support Specialists $24.30
>>
>> The above hourly rates are for full-time work. For less than 40 hours/week,
>> the rates have to be proportionately higher. For example, if you are a
>> "Computer Programmer", the hourly cut-off wage is $31.77 but the
>> corresponding yearly wage is $74,626.00.
>> To Susanna:
>> This is a professional PHP community and frankly, your $10/hour for
>> part-time work is inappropriate to the point of being insulting. You may
>> think that an offer is just an offer and those who don't like it could
>> simply pass on by, but I'd rather not see this online space turn into a
>> craigslist ghetto with its infamous "looking for someone to build me
>> a YouTube/Ebay combo for $1,000" ads.
>>
>> To fellow PHP developers:
>> I know we are all flooded with work and don't necesarily have time for
>> nonsense, but let's try and take care of each other. Save this link for the
>> DOL minimum wages page and let unethical would-be clients know when they've
>> crossed the line. For sample language, please refer to the No Spec project
>> which contains lots of great examples like this.
>>
>>
>> Sincerely
>> Rada Lapsker
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List
>> http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>>
>> NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
>> http://www.nyphpcon.com
>>
>> Show Your Participation in New York PHP
>> http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
>>
>