Hourly wages model. Will it work in Pakistan?
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One of our readers mentioned this in his comments that Pakistani companies should start paying on hourly bases. Here is my take why this model probably is not suitable for our environment.
I think how our society works is tightly coupled with how our salaries are delivered to us. For us the measure of a good salary is how much you save at the end of each month, this is one of the main reasons that people go abroad in hordes live on tight budgets to save the maximum. So a lot of times questions posed to the professionals by friends and families is not how much you have earned but how much you have saved.
I think the monthly wages system assists us in saving more easily, more over whole of our system like utility bills, rents, car lease are designed around the monthly wages system, so you pay rent once in a month same for utility bills. in western countries this is some times bi-monthly and even on weekly basis.
Similarly the responsibilities an average Pakistani support is more than what an average America support, you have to take care of your parents, provide education to your children till university level, marry of your daughters sisters, and what not. so for a Pakistani professional these responsibilities are the major mile stones in his life, more often than not his career revolves around these, so you often here “once i marry off my sister i will do my Masters”
Similarly our goals in life our different we would like to have our own house at the end of our career have a fixed amount of income coming from either fixed deposits shares or property on rent. So for all these goals the monthly wages system works more for us.
What do you think?
5:18 pm
I think this problem can easily be solved by having monthly wages paid on the basis of worked hours in the whole month. More you work, more you get. This will encourage employees to work extra hours in order to save more at the end of the month.
5:31 pm
Daily labourers in the city often earn on a daily basis, so the system is already working here. Which is why you see so many labourers not liking holidays nor strikes cuz it means no money for the day, and why they go in hordes when called for a rally cuz they’re usually paid more than at their jobs for it.
Secondly, daily wages would lead to a breakdown of the already barely present family system, as in the greed to earn more money, quality time with family will be all but sacrificed.
Just my two cents
12:48 am
I disagree with your ideas but I agree with your conclusion. Its the cultural difference. Foreigners are amazed when they see the amount of hardwork and time we devout to our work. Its almost as if we have no recreational life
Which is true. Hourly wages lead to overtime pay which is prone to abuse. Its Parkinson’s law. Employee’s will stick around longer, task times will inflate. Hourly wages only makes sense when dealing with non-creative tangible labour.
11:25 pm
Hourly wages make sense for programming jobs as well as any job available, whether its graphic design, print media design, advertising, or whatever. It depends on the nature of project, the company policies etc. If a project is well managed, with all design done, all tasking/scheduling complete and the company needs additional staff to shorten the timeline, this can be done with hourly-wage employees. These employees are usually paid higher than full-time employees but they do not get health benefits and other benefits. Now one might argue that in Pakistan, most companies don’t give any benefits anyway so what’s the point of having hourly wages – well if a company doesn’t treat its full time different from any other employee, they are effectively paying all employees on hourly basis (just that they never admit it).
My 2 cents..!
1:58 pm
I have experimented with hourly wages idea; but in the end there was confusion and chaos. Yes, it suits our social milieu to have monthly wages model, and peace of mind with it. Hourly wages system kills it all.
9:42 pm
why not? must try hourly wages idea is cool with me as developer, must be cool with models as well
12:25 pm
I am more inclined towards paying lumpsum for outsourced projects cause in case of hourly wages one has to strictly ascertain and maintan the deliverables.