Recently copywriter and agency owner Christian / @cbwritescopy went viral…
For saying he pays his Pakistani employees $4/hour.
I pay employees at my marketing agency 4 bucks an hour and they’re extremely grateful to be working with me. Let me explain why…
He goes on to say that this pay is for administrative tasks or unskilled labour like formatting spreadsheets and setting up email accounts.
The average salary in Pakistan is $280/month.
His VAs get paid $640 per month.
And he says if they perform well he gives them a raise.
Christian runs a lead generation agency.
A typical retainer is $2000 per month.
But for an experienced marketer who gets results, I’m sure Christian is making a minimum of $5000 per month plus performance fees.
I don’t have a problem with Christian arbitraging labour like this.
And I don’t have a problem with Pakistanis willing to work for $4 per hour.
It’s a win-win situation for both parties.
The only reason I’m using this example is to show you how much of a gap there is between value creation and value capture.
Christian himself is a victim of this equation.
His agency likely creates 6-figures in value every month for his clients…
From which he’s able to capture 5-15%.
If you’re a copywriter, media buyer, graphic designer, developer in the Global South…
Working for some occidental agency…
Understand that they’re marking up your work by 5-10X to resell to their clients.
And they’re only able to do this because…
You’re not willing to build a real business for yourself.
– Nabeel