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Comment by noptic | Hacker News Reader

The first time someone wanted to hire me was even before I started college. "so how much will you bill me?" "Well right now I get 7€ (9.2$ at current rate) for unloding trucks ..." He interupted me before I could finish the sentence and demand 8€. "I can not pay you 7€! taht is just to much!"

Sooooo I declined but someone took the job ... for under 8$ an hour.

How much quality can you expect for that price???

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This sadly still happens. I remember looking through Craigslist jobs and legit companies wanting someone with html/css/javascript/php experience for $8/hr, kid you not.

Do they really allow hourly billing - I wonder if they realise it can cost less to get an experienced person at a higher hourly rate who'll do the job in less hours.

I'm guessing they don't realize much of anything related to the work they're looking to have done.

Part of the problem is, it's difficult to convince companies that (html/css/js/php) coding work is worth something, unless the company you're working for is actually a startup. Especially when they say "Can't you just do it in Wordpress, or Wix or something?"

Another part of the problem is, developers take that work. I probably would myself. I'd hate myself for it but if I have to take shit pay to make ends meet I'd rather do it coding than not.

This seems analogous to "The Market for Lemons"* The proprietor of a small business has a very hard time judging the competence of a designer/developer even for simple jobs.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

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