Call centre workers are becoming as cheap to hire in the US as they are in India, according to the head of the countryâs largest business process outsourcing company. High unemployment levels have driven down wages for some low-skilled outsourcing services in some parts of the US, particularly among the Hispanic population. At the same time, wages in Indiaâs outsourcing sector have risen by 10 per cent this year and senior outsourcing managers based in the country command salaries above global averages. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0f6d8f76-aa29-11df-9367-00144feabdc0.html
Virtual Workers as 1099 independent contractors working from their home and supplying their own computer and internet can compete with Indian Call Center workers to make $5 an hour for general tasks. As long as they are 1099 "part time" workers they at best can supplement unemployment while looking for full time work. Checkout odesk.com for world wide task driven virtual workers. US Skilled workers bid on jobs and compete with the world's skilled workers and typically get killed.
I call bullshit. India just enacted the US Federal minimum wage? (we must have missed the press release on that one). Article is probably a direct response to Schumner wanting to place a tax on calls redirected overseas.
If you are looking for a sales rep to make outbound sales calls, they will require more than minimum wage here in the U.S., at least $40k per year, plus commissions, plus medical insurance, which could cost another $10k per year for a single person if you pay for the full cost of it and offer a zero deductible. If they have a wife, it could cost another $26k per year in medical insurance. If they have one child, it could cost another $31k per year in medical insurance. You can get a sales rep in India for $960 per month, which is $6 per hour. You won't have to worry about medical and dental insurance, nor buy a computer, a phone, pay utility bills, or rent office space, plus you can utilize them for just several months out of the year or just one month per year if you like.
Hilton, I believe, just outsourced 300 call center agents (making $9-12 an hour) to the Philippines. Unsurprisingly, they were based in California
All of the employment figures by the govt seem to lack one critical calculation: 1099 and outsourced workers. All companies will use as much temp / contract and outsource staff as possible. The Department of Labor should develop a metric of contractors versus employees to gauge our true engaged work force and calculate the % of jobs moved overseas.
I don't how people live on $9 per hour here in the U.S., unless you have 2 or 3 roommates. If you are looking to have a stay at home wife and you have children, how in the world do you live on $1,560 per month?
I know a gal that does just that, she couch surfs, has a laptop she uses to write grant proposals and run a charity org... My daughter lived on $900/month when at UCLA!! She shared a room that was about the size of a walk-in closet!!
Many 1099 workers have their own equipment and work at home. There is no benefits or any minimum wage law for them. They pay higher Social Security. No unemployment benefits unless you structure yourself as an employee of your own corporation - which means huge fees for California. It was very good before the days of huge global competition in IT jobs.
Most of the call center workers in the U.S. are not contract employees but full time hourly workers. The U.S. has a number of large BPO call-center companies such as Maximus, Teletech, and A.C.S. that perform outsourced call-center services for health, insurance, telephone, and government entities. The are also a huge number of smaller BPO call-center companies spread across the U.S. The number of call center workers in the U.S. greatly exceeds the number in India. The focus in the BPO call center business is to keep the Average Handle Time (A.H.T.) per call low. The business customers of the outsourcing call centers typically pay per minute or in a system that reflects AHT commitments. Reducing AHT in call centers is usually achieved when technology, training, well-trained (senior) agents, proper communication (English/Spanish) and customer handling material is properly applied. The U.S. call centers typically excel compared to outshore call centers in all of these areas. Therefore the AHT is lower in the U.S. for these BPO call centers when compared to call centers outside the U.S. -- this means the premise of the article that call center business costs of a U.S. based call center are cheaper than one in India is correct. It does not mean that the hourly pay of the U.S. workers is less; simply that the productivity of the U.S. call centers is greater due to the factors outlined above. The article's information that call center hourly costs in the U.S are falling is actually not correct. The average U.S. hourly rate for a call center worker rose 0.9% in 2009. However due to the unemployment situation in the U.S., the quality of workers has improved (educationally, experience, etc.) The call center hourly wages in India rose over 20% on average in 2009 and the employee turnover is 300% greater than in the U.S. Therefore U.S. based call centers are beginning to look like a bargain to many India-owned BPO companies.