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Comment by mcenedella | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been on Upwork as a buyer for years. It’s tremendous for getting great talent on a short term basis. Top rate I’ve paid I think is some close to or just over $100/hour, so it’s definitely not just for low-end stuff.

I’ve learned (the hard way) about being very, very clear with deliverables and expectations. Based on the average response I get on Upwork, it would seem the median buyer is much more susceptible to contractors blowing smoke. So one has to be careful.

But overall, as several hundred thousand dollars client over the years, it’s been a godsend.

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> $100/hour, so it’s definitely not just for low-end stuff.

Maybe not low-end, but that's still probably the lower end of mid-end.

On a global marketplace? $100/hour is a ridiculously good rate for a large % of workers. Maybe not in SF or Tech Hubs but for a graphics designer in India, or Eastern Europe?

High-end, by definition, is not a large percentage of workers. High end is the workers on the high end of the compensation scale.

Those type of people arent going to be on a site like upwork, but they make a hell of a lot more than $100/hr.

They are the high end in the global market.

Only in very rich countries $100/hr could be considered "normal" or not high-end.

You are conflating price and quality. If there are two top level people equally good one will undercut the other. And if one lives in Bangalore and the other in SF the first will undercut massively. SF living expenses are an exception on a global market place.

High end goods and services are not races to the bottom.

For example, when was the last time you saw an airline undercut their competitors' first-class ticket price? How many sports-car manufactures get in price wars with their competition?

If your services are supply-constrained and there is a string market, you can charge whatever you want (to an extent, at least many times your cost of living), your cost of living doesn't matter when setting your prices in that situation. Your value is what the market dictates, not how much it costs you to buy a loaf of bread.

You get what you pay for.

Take the very same individual and place them in India or US, or even in a high or low CoL area in the US and they would charge differently; but their work is still the same. So you're not really getting what you paid for, you're paying for many externalities.

I’ve encountered offshore devs that are actually quite good... they are by far the exception, but they also charge much more than the run of the mill folks that you’re likely to encounter.

Come again, $100/hour is the "lower end of mid-end"? The median wage is around $25 in the USA, the minimum wage averages around $10...

That’s an apple to oranges comparison. You should be comparing it to the median freelance hourly rate for each respective industry.

We're talking about compensation for a specific type of work whose market value is above $100/hour.

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