You've been emailing me in the thousands, harassing me by phone and text day and night and stopping me on the street to ask:
"Have you made any money Odesk?
Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit- but it is time for an update! Well I haven't made thousands of dollars in my spare time. I have made $23 and spent hours applying for several jobs. The problem with Odesk is that people are looking for cheap labour, and there are lots of people willing to work for next to nothing- like less than a $1 an hour. I try to excuse it by presuming (without actually checking) that $1 US an hour in the Philippines is a really good wage, and then I came across US Pastors and Churches who hired Odesk workers at a low rate for all manner of administrative tasks. Everything from transcribing an audio recording of a sermon to designing flyers for the upcoming pastors appreciation banquet (the contractor for that current job would have needed to design 6 flyers for to afford a ticket to go to the banquet!). Now I needed to know if these workers were being paid fairly, and seriously resisted the urge to fire off an email to some of these churches.
Even with the internet at my disposal, finding a comparison wage is pretty tricky. I do discover that a young Indian girl picking tea leaves for my morning cuppa makes about 30cents an hour, in which case no wonder those with some computer skills and the equipment are flocking to Odesk (and I resolve to double check all my tea is fair trade). In the Philippines it's a little different as far as I can tell, but it seems that $5-$7 US dollars an hour would be an average wage, making $1 an hour well below the average.
Before you join with me in fury at these Odesk pastors and Churches I suggest you do what I did- check the label on your clothing. Right now. Go ahead and check. If I am mad at churches for farming out work for cheaper labour, I should be equally mad at myself. I can justify purchasing clothes from companies who favour sweat shops, their workers experiencing both low pay and dangerous working conditions, but I can't justify what happens on O desk? Perhaps because on Odesk I have a name and a face that goes with the low wage. When Nike first offered customized shoes with customers names emblazoned on the side, I heard of a gentlemen who requested the shoe be marked with name of the child sweatshop worker who had made it (I believe Nike declined). I wonder how my shopping habits would change if the tag bearing the cheap price I love also bore the photo of the worker who would never make enough money to buy it.
Do you have any thoughts on clothing and sweat shops? Where can you buy clothes that aren't made in sweat shops? Is a low wage better than no wage? Comment and let me know your thoughts.
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