Re: Pay (Am I getting screwed)

> > >Hey guys, > > > >I got a question about pay for PHP work... > > > >I'm employed by a small business setting up unix servers and scripting a > >webhosting system for them. I'm only 17 years old, but I've finished year > >11 and I have my MCSE (Not that it means a lot) > > > >I'm getting paid $150 Australian per week, working from 9-5 on Mondays, > >Tuesdays and Thursdays. > > > >Personally I think this is a 'screwover' situation. > >I've tried talking to my boss about it but he's the 'I know everything' and > >'you're only 17' type... > > > >What do you guys think of this? > >What's a reasonable pay for this amount of PHP coding, for a 17 year old? > >Do bear in mind that I'm scripting an entire webhosting businesses site. > > I don't live in Australia. > Before you started working for them did you agree to write a webhosting system for them? > Is it a summer job that ends soon? > A lot of companies DO take advantage of students. > It sounds like they are taking advantage of you BUT if it's a summer job and you agreed to it before > then I would finish it. > If it is full time then I would start looking for a new job. > Do you have any benefits if it is full time? > Is that minimum wage there? > Is that even legal? > That wage in Canada would be illegal. > The fact that you're 17 is not relevant. It is actually - we don't have an award in australia for IT personnell, so we get lumped in the clerical award. 17 year old secretaries don't get paid much. Unless Liam does the wheeling and dealing, he will get offered crap money legally. Australia doesn't have 'benifits' as such, we have a pretty good public health system (The only major downside is that you have to wait to be patched up - but aside from that it is very good). You do get superannuation, but that's taxed when it goes in and when it comes out (basically a sham) ;) Believe me because I'm in the industry here and have been for quite a few years, he is getting shafted, but it is probably legal. To the guy who said he should be getting paid $150 bucks and hour... well - maybe if you were a team leader on a major IT project. Not if you're 17 and trying to get your foot in the door. To get paid the big money in australia, companies want EVERYTHING - (C++/ SQL/ ASP/ PHP/ JAVA/ PERL/ DHTML/ XML) - don't ask me why you'd bother to use all of these technologies (probably to support their old crappy systems and build them new ones) - but that's what they are offering big money for. Look at the facts... He is 17 and there are a helluva a lot of PHP/ASP/PERL programmers looking for work. If he was exceptional at programming and was super quick and clean skill wise, he might be looking at 60 -70 grand a year (around $35-40 an hour) - which is soooo unlikely. There isn't this massive dot com agenda in Australia. And unlike a bunch of companies that went under, aussies won't pay crazy amounts of money (they don't have) to their staff when they don't have to. Hell - there are hardly any companies in australia that are actually making money from the net. Even the ISPs don't (trust me - I work for one! :)) make massive profits. Bobski