U.S. Programmers at Overseas Salaries

Businessweek ^ | 12/03/03 | David E. Gumpert

[MineralMan]

I know there are lots of folks who consider this a bad thing...US programmers working for $45K/year. Oh well. The guy advertised, and got lots of resumes. He hired folks who were quite willing to work for that amount, and two of them have now been promoted to higher pay rates.

Sounds like a solution to me. Nobody's coercing the programmers to apply.

[Old Professer]

And so, the other shoe has a soft-sole; the way this story reads, this is a done-deal.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Ready or not, here it comes!

[Eva]

I know some top rated computer guys who have been working for these wages for the past few years because any job is better than no job when you have a family to support.

[ColdSteelTalon]

This reads like a SPAM e-mail posted on Free Republic as news.

[Alouette]

US programmers working for $45K/year.

I made less than that this year.

Do you think US programmers should be working for $8,000 or less?

[William McKinley]

On the positive site, we could begin to solve our job-creation problems. But on the negative side, America's standard of living would inevitably decline.

How could America's standard of living possibly decline by taking out-of-work people and giving them jobs that would otherwise go out of America?

[MineralMan]

"I made less than that this year. "

As did I. I'm no longer in the programming business, but ran my own software company for several years, with a couple of fairly successful products. I was the sole programmer for my own company, and did a heckuva good job. In my best year, however, I netted less than $45K. Now my programs are all free (they were shareware), and they're still widely used.

The point is the same. If a company advertises a job for a certain amount, gets applications, then hires people, no harm is done at all. In this case 4 programmers were hired. Two are now making lots more money. Jobs were saved for US employees.

I fail to see the problem here, and hope other companies do the same. Lots of out-of-work programmers will apply, I have no doubt, and be glad to have work in their field.

I switched my business completely, got out of software, and now sell stuff retail from a web site. I'm making no more money than I was, actually, but it's a heckuva lot easier than maintaing and upgrading six products, each with a couple hundred thousand lines of VB code.

[stuartcr]

I guess all the other companies would reduce their salaries accordingly.

[looscnnn]

I think they mean us that do care about the jobs leaving the US.

[Alouette]

How could America's standard of living possibly decline by taking out-of-work people and giving them jobs that would otherwise go out of America?

Because these people are making less money and therefore have to adjust to a lower standard of living?

[null and void]

I would cheerfully take a 50% cut to be able to work in my field.

It sure beats the 100% cut I've had last year...

[William McKinley]

They are making less money than they are when they have no job?

[null and void]

If you had only one or two major projects would you trust them to nameless, faceless programmers in a country a dozen time zones away for whom english is a second language? Only if your the moronic executive of a blue chip company.

This is the same moronic executive of a blue chip company who won't let his workers telecommute because he can't keep an eye on them...

[null and void]

Next they are going to reintroduce debtor's prison and flogging.

Only until the morale improves...

[MineralMan]

"Do you think US programmers should be working for $8,000 or less?"

No, and they wouldn't take the jobs at that price. They will, however, take the jobs at $45K. That's the point. There is a market price for everything. If you advertise a job and get more applicants than you have positions for, you're working within the marketplace. If nobody applies, then your salary is too low. It's that simple.

No harm, no foul. Nobody is coerced into taking any job.

[looscnnn]

Wouldn't shipping the jobs overseas ultimately negatively impact the US standard of living? After all if the only jobs available are "Welcome to W***mart" or "Would you like to King Size that order", doesn't that negatively impact the US standard of living?

[MineralMan]

"I would cheerfully take a 50% cut to be able to work in my field.

It sure beats the 100% cut I've had last year...
"

Bingo! Only folks with a job think that no job is better than one at a lower pay scale than was once prevalent. Shoot, we've got so many out-of-work programmers since the collapse of the sofware market that you'd have no problem getting applicants at 40K a year.

[A. Pole]

And then Jon had a brainstorm. What if he offered Americans the jobs at the same rate he would be paying for Indian programmers? It seemed like a long shot. But it also seemed worth the gamble. So Jon placed some ads in The Boston Globe, offering full-time contract programming work for $45,000 annually. [He had decided that it was worth adding a $5,000 premium to what he'd pay the Indian workers in exchange for having the programmers on site.] The result? "We got flooded" with resumes, about 90 in total, many from highly qualified programmers having trouble finding work in the down economy, Jon says. His decision: "For $5,000 it was no contest." Jon went American. And the outcome? "I think I got the best of both worlds. I got local people who came in for 10% more [than Indians]. And I found really good ones."

Interesting.

[A. Pole]

The average Indian programmer makes $8,000 a year. Are Americans ready for that?

With the socialised medicine, subsidized housing, food stamps and good public transportation yes.