[irjustin]

To be transparent, I have used Upwork in the past and would use it again as a client.

What he's saying is pretty spot on. ANY market place that's wide spread/large enough is an efficiency system that goes to fair market value.

Is there a fix that I could provide? No, because what he's complaining about, someone in India is praising. The Indian designer can get discovered. Pumps out good, solid work at 94% success and makes way more money than he ever could staying local to his/her area.

It is outsourcing and the article writer might have more skills, completely possible, but in a market place that turns skills into commodities you need to stand out. Relates to the clients better w/ background, stronger portfolio, bigger named contracts. There are expensive designers on Upwork for sure, and they deserve it, but they didn't get there out of the gate.

If I had a friend who was a designer in a first world country that asked about Upwork, I'd say avoid it. Make friends with local companies, upsell into bigger ones, and shun Upwork.

Your advantage has to be, you can sidestep it.

[_y5hn]

It's sweatshop work in India as well. Many are highly educated and they want to be hired locally, by international corporations like Oracle, and have a decent life not phoning Western clients during the night and coding. They'll complain about russian/Ukrainian and Polish working even cheaper.

[gshdg]

It’s not necessarily about “fair market value”. It’s “lowest possible price” but that doesn’t account for quality, communication and cultural barriers, etc. particularly in a market where the customer typically doesn’t know enough to judge quality up front.