The World is Your Oyster: Part One

Over the coming months I'll be blogging about something that I find worth delving into with greater detail: the effect of the Internet and global communication. Specifically I'd like to focus on the effects that it has had on the job market in specific countries. Having come from the Western part of the world, I regularly keep tabs on things back in the U.S., and some of my clients are from the U.S. as well. I also have clients in Thailand, the U.K., Australia, among other places.

In today's society the borders of our countries really don't mean anything anymore, other than geographical boundaries. With education around the world relatively on the same level, employers are beginning to look beyond their own country for employees, especially in job sectors where a physical seat in the office doesn't necessarily need to be filled in order for the job tasks to be carried out. For example, the freelance writing market, or the print market in general. Journalism, freelance writing, copy writing, SEO writing, copy editing, and more, these are all jobs that can be completed by anyone who has the relevant skills.

For example, let's take a company from the U.S. Let's say your average magazine or newspaper. They are willing to pay a competitive wage. But here's the thing: they aren't just pulling potential writers out of a local pool anymore. It's not just open to relevant individuals within their country, but rather the entire globe. Why? Because the Internet means that anyone with the qualifications can complete the work. And here's where the crux of the issue comes into play. A person from say, India, or the Philippines, goes up against a writer from the U.S. in a bidding war for the job. The employer looks over the quotes. The first thing he notices is that the writer from India/Philippines (this is just an example...any country could apply) has quoted him rates that are anywhere from 40 to 60% lower than the writer from the U.S. Any smart business plan will have the employer hiring the low bid...so long as the qualifications are relevant.

If you take two people with the same level of skill, education, and background, and one of them is from a country with a high cost of living, and then compare him against someone from a country with a drastically lower cost of living, each person's bid is going to be relevant to his or her present cost of living and what they consider to be an acceptable wage. The problem with this is that for many writers in the United States, it means the jobs they have come to rely on in the past are now being farmed out to people who are willing to do the same work for a fraction of the price.

Are the companies concerned? Absolutely not. Why? Because they are getting services at a drastic discount, but still marketing their end-product the same as ever, meaning their profit revenues go up.

It's a sticky topic with a lot of freelance journalists and writers, because there have been a rising number of content generation sites opening up in the last year or two that are farming work out at dramatically low prices. Where a writer might have been able to get 100 dollars for a 1k word article 2 years ago, those same 1k articles are now being farmed out for under 5 dollars. Many writers feel that it is unfair, that the wages shouldn't have been dropped that low, and that the writers accepting such low paying work are only perpetuating the system and they shouldn't take the jobs, thus forcing employers to raise the rates again.

It won't happen. Why? Because we can't afford to selfishly think of ourselves as locked into regional borders when it comes to methods and means of employment. We (writers) are no longer competing only against other qualified candidates from our own country. We are now competing with writers from all over the globe. And while 2 dollars for a 1k word article might be pennies to someone used to making 100 dollars for that same article, for someone from a third-world country who has the relevant qualifications, that 2 dollars is worth a hell of a lot more than it is to you or I.

While I agree that fair standards should be in place to insure that writers are getting a fair wage as a bottom line, I also don't think that it's going to be an easy thing to put into place. After all, we aren't just competing with the people from within our own country anymore who have the same cost of living and thus need the same amount per article or per hour. The competition is growing by the day as more and more people around the world gain access to the Internet. We can't afford to think of ourselves as locked in by borders, because they don't exist anymore. Global communication means the entire world has access to these jobs, and in order to stay competitive you either have to learn how to work for as cheaply as they do, or move on to greener pastures (if you can find them).