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283 points

shouldn’t the federal minimum wage apply to everyone who is doing work in the US? This seems like fraud

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-10 points

$3 is loads more than the Philippines minimum wage. I think it’s $8-$10 per day.

Also, y’all are thinking of what $3 buys in the US. The purchasing power is far different. $3 buys a lot over there.

I’ll ask my wife when she gets home, but I bet $3 is equivalent to $10-$12 in the US.

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74 points

Also, y’all are thinking of what $3 buys in the US. The purchasing power is far different. $3 buys a lot over there.

You misunderstand. We aren’t unaware or ignoring the purchasing power difference, that’s obvious, everyone knows currency differs. The issue is and always has been the outsourcing to increase profit in general, regardless of country or purchasing disparity. There is no reason to use a teleconferenced cashier for a retail location other than minimizing employee pay, not just by paying the minimum required here but literally taking a local job and shipping it overseas so you can instead pay what would be a clear poverty wage here, while undoubtedly having record profits like all these companies end up with.

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-1 points

We aren’t unaware or ignoring the purchasing power difference, that’s obvious, everyone knows currency differs. The issue is and always has been the outsourcing to increase profit in general, regardless of country or purchasing disparity

This makes it sound like your problem isn’t someone getting hurt; it’s someone doing well.

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-13 points
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So, there actually is a reason to do this beyond pay, but clearly pay is the actual reason they do it.

A restaurant has a set amount of staff. What happens if a few are sick and they have trouble finding someone to fill in?

A remote agent like this could be from a larger organization being contracted out and you’d never have to worry about not having someone to be available.

Edit: 1 person could even be managing multiple stores where they queue the person to assist you as it detects you approaching. Less ideal would be ‘someone will be available in 45 seconds’ type queuing.

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-2 points

Everyone complains about small businesses being driven out, especially in NYC. Their two biggest costs are rent and labor, so of course they try to minimize both of them.

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2 points

Depends on the region, lowest is about 350 php or 6 usd per day. Most of the call centers are in the big cities however where wages are a bit higher and they well enough to be thought of as a decent job.

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13 points

I really don’t care how much buying power they have over there. A fair days work here in the US should be paid in turn.

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-3 points

Well, if you’re gonna advocate for people, you should care what their experience is.

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0 points

And flood the islands with US currency? Seems that would lead to massive inflation and hurt the people not working “in” the US.

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23 points

I mean, yeah probably. That’s not the point. The point is that it’s a race to the bottom for people living in higher cost-of-living places.

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10 points

Okay. Imagine the purchasing power of someone who made the NYC minimum wage of $16/hr.

Maybe pay people for their time, not what the exchange rate “might” be.

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-2 points

If I’m paying NYC minimum wages, I’m getting someone from NYC, in NYC.

Sorry lady from the Phillipines. You’re out of a job because they put in this new “outsourcing must be at local wage rates” law.

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124 points

how would you distinguish this from regular outsourcing

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205 points
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Outsourcing is the problem.

The owners take advantage of our commons, tear up our roads, and succeeded because of domestic infrastructure, only to refuse to pay full price for labor and allowing even those wages, in lieu of the taxes they bribe our government to enact loopholes to dodge, to “trickle down” domestically as their always bullshit yay market capitalism talking points lied?

It’s absolutely clownshoes that outsourcing labor/manufacturing is allowed, not because of domestic shortages for a skill, but to explicitly pay pennies on the dollar for the employees you need and screw the country you don’t want to pay taxes to despite record profits even harder.

It’s insane. But we let the owner class dictate whatever they want here, and our well bribed government will even sell it for them by calling it “something something freedom” while never mentioning social consequences, accountability, or responsibility. We aren’t so much a country as a piggy bank and cudgel for the global owner class.

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19 points

Something something candlemaker’s petition

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8 points

Borders are violence

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29 points
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Should apply to that as well if they’re interacting with the US market. All the way through subcontractors to the end employee. No hiding behind contracting local companies.

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-14 points

i don’t like outsourcing either, but realistically the machine of capitalism isn’t going to allow you to be rid of it in its entirety

honestly i don’t even know if getting rid of multinational organisations is on the whole a good thing, and that’s the only way i can see of getting rid of outsourcing

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39 points

That the neat thing, you don’t.

Here, for certain industries (might be all but I don’t have first hand accounts of that), the contractors must make sure that the companies/freelancers they employ pay their taxes, otherwise, they are on the hook for it.

Do the same. If a company outsource work, they should prove that they pay the same as they would in their region, and if it not, be hit hard by fines and/or jail time.

But one can only dream I guess

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0 points

They aren’t doing work in the US though.

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1 point

That is naive. I hope you don’t have any employees

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2 points

We may not agree with it, but this is exactly the same thing as an overseas call center. They’re not physically located in the US and are not subject to any laws here.

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10 points

This practice is rampant across industries and only getting worse. We must demand an end to it through legislation.

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