[Dogamondo]

Are these monthly salaries quite typical across the board for the majority of people in Bangladesh? I employ a JS developer in Dhaka as a contractor who's hourly rate is $22.00 USD. I would have crossed his palm with about $4000 in the past month alone. Yet he still tells me he's only on the slightly higher side of 'average' when it comes to lifestyle/income over there. Earning 90% of a sweat shop workers monthly salary per hour kinda makes me second guess this. Anyone here have any direct experience of what the cost of living in Bangladesh really is?

[Dogamondo]

Thanks a lot for the replies guys. I had a feeling I might be paying too much. As since I hired my contractor he's suddenly been able to afford to set up and office and hire other developers that are charged at the same rate. Don't get me wrong, he's a really skilled developer and puts my JS skills to shame. But I'm feeling like the price per project seems to be creeping up exponentially. I'll try giving some smaller jobs to other devs in Bangladesh & India to see what the quality of work is like in comparison. Cheers.

[al1x]

Average salary for a software developer in India is ~10k US. You're paying him 4.4x that. You should shop around. Contract out some small pieces of work to other developers in the $5-$10/hr range and see what quality of work they deliver. I suspect you'll find you're overpaying. (I pay my contractors $5/hr)

[allochthon]

I suspect that wages and wage expectations are always relative to a cohort of one's peers. I'm doubt that any developer, anywhere in the world, takes into account the average income of textile workers in their expectations of what they should be making. They compare their earnings to those of other developers.