Comment by _ah | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _ah | Hacker News Reader

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No.

You are only being exploited if you: 1. Are "worth more" in the industry (you could get paid more for the same work) 2. Are unable to take another higher paid position for whatever reason.

Both of these items must be true.

If you have heard of others paying more, that doesn't count... the only way you can reasonably claim to be "worth more" is if you have actually been offered a position at a higher pay rate. Then you can either take that position, or work for yourself, or turn it down because you like your current team. A situation such as yours is only exploitive if the employer is underpaying you AND blocking your ability to transfer.

If it's too much to get everything done in 18 hrs / wk, then it doesn't get done. They can increase your hour cap or your deadline. These discussions are sometimes hard, but they're not complicated.

What you fail to realize is that you are, right now, gaining the most valuable thing you can: experience. Though most tech shops claim to be a meritocracy, you'll discover very quickly that experience is very highly valued by hiring managers... maybe even more than it should be. So you're making $15/hr, and could be making $20 / $50 / whatever. Treat this as a learning experience to sharpen your skills and seriously buff your resume.

You need to optimize for learning. NEED TO. This is the wrong time in your career to optimize for paycheck.

Bullshit. If your replacement at your current employer would need triple pay or quadruple, then you are being exploited or at least in a strong position to renegotiate.

I think this is the answer. Look at all the recent threads about grads struggling to get a job. The experience you'll get from this sounds golden. Then again it probably doesn't hurt to ask for more money. And learn to manage their expectations about what is achievable. One way is to come up with a roadmap you are comfortable with for 4 months and present it to them. Also maybe get quotes from experienced devs and show how much cheaper you are.

I think replying to this either way will make me look arrogant or dumb. I think I am more worth in the industry, I've secured an internship that pays triple. I thank you for the input for the other thing though - I've taken your idea and talked to management about at least hiring more people seeing how they won't budge on a raise. (but are willing to hire more people?)

I've secured an internship that pays triple

Unless you're under some kind of contract, you have your answer. What is holding you to this current job?

> What is holding you to this current job?

I'm not sure if this is the case, but OP may not be aware that some employers offer part-time remote internships, or the employer who OP interned for at triple his current pay may not have offered them.

OP, if you read this and this is the case, I went through a similar experience. My first internship was for a Silicon Valley company over the summer, and then I went on to work as a System Administrator for a college when I got back to school at ~33% of what I made over the summer. However, for my next internship, I worked for a different company and when I went back to school we agreed that I would work part-time remotely. I still made the same per hour as when I was working 40 hour weeks, I just worked fewer hours. I had a bunch of friends who did the same thing - interned for a company for a semester and then returned to school and worked for them part-time for a lot more than they would have made if they'd worked for the school.

Hiring a more experienced person to help you sounds like a great idea, actually. Your pay is not be based entirely on actual merit, but must also take risk into account. Once you've demonstrated the value, then you have the power to command more pay. In my experience though, you get the big raises when you switch jobs.

This is totally correct.

back in 2001 when the tech bubble busted, and no one was hiring, I didn't have much work experience, so I worked for a company for Free, 10-15 hours a week for 9 months, just for the work experience. I didn't consider it exploitation, because I there were no other options out there at the time. However, i did get out of there as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

If you can find a better $$ rate, you should take it right away.

See, if you can get an entry level position at snap chat, I hear they pay like 9000$ a month for interns!!!

What you're describing isn't merely exploitation; it's illegal in the US because it is.

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