Exploitation On Rise For Outsourced Jobs To South Asian Countries
Running a business is an expensive affair. And thanks to the ease of access and remote work transitioning to the new normal, companies willingly outsource departmental functions like HR, accounting, IT, digital marketing, web development, and customer services. The US alone accounts for 84.2% of outsourcing work to BPO services. While it may seem like a good move for creating employment, the top countries for delegating these jobs include India, the Philippines, South Africa, Malaysia, and Pakistan. If we notice, all of these are low-cost countries where exploitation in the name of employment becomes easier and often goes unnoticed even. Because not every day, do we have someone like Jordan Olivas openly admitting to exploiting workers and then pretending to be the victim.
Jordan Olivas, the CEO of QisstPay, an e-commerce company, tweeted about a Pakistani developer with a few years of experience who tried to “rip him off” by demanding 1M PKR per month. He further bragged about employing over 100 Pakistanis. While he tried to show that he was being a ‘victim,’ what it brought to light is the sad state of exploitation of workers from low-cost countries. The tweet now remains deleted but, in another tweet, when someone asked how much would he pay for a software engineer straight out of college, Olivas asked, “From Pakistan? Living in Pakistan?” and mentioned a cost that comes to USD 2-4 per hour! It highlights a greater issue, where a qualified engineer would still earn a lot less just because he/she lives in Pakistan, as opposed to someone from the US.
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It is sad that people have no qualms about paying someone so less when of course, they deserve a lot more. Cost-cutting may be a prominent factor for businesses but does it come at a cost of sheer exploitation of one’s talent and experience? If we calculate, 1M PKR comes to about USD 4500 which is a fair enough salary for a qualified developer, but because you belong to a low-cost country, you won’t get it. To put things in perspective, on average the monthly salary of an experienced developer in the US is close to USD 8000-9000. And here, we are unwilling to pay even half of that amount.
When we widely talk of equal pay and opportunities, it is time to address outsourcing pay scales, especially in the so-called ‘third-world’ countries, as they get referred to by the developed ones. Companies who are outsourcing work to low-cost countries must do so by following the basic principles of work ethics – like respecting someone’s talent and qualifications.
South Asian countries facilitate the growth and development of countries like the US and UK, but knowingly or unknowingly they are becoming their slaves.
