Monthly Archives: February 2016

In life there are always positive things and not-so-positive things to just about everything we do. One of the wonderful things about being a Freelancer is the freedom to choose exactly when and how much we will work. We can work in the privacy and comfort of our own homes and on our own schedule. If we need to go to a doctor’s appointment, we simply go. If we need to attend a child’s event, we simply go. If we wish to go to a sporting event, we simply go. We can get to our work later in the day or early in the morning – whenever it is convenient to us.

The downside to this freedom, unfortunately, is that we lack some of the benefits which come from working for someone else in a company. Benefits such as Health Insurance. When we work for someone else, that company pays for Health Insurance for us – and possibly Dental Insurance and even Disability Insurance.

What does this mean? What this means is that we exchange the safety which the large company offers to us for the freedom that working as a Freelancer affords us.

In an excellent article in this month’s issue (February 2016) of Inc magazine, on page 56 there is a very well-written story about the benefits and downsides of Freelancing. Although this article is largely focused on Freelancers in the USA, there are many things in the article which are also useful for our Freelancers in India. The safety net of Health Insurance is a key one.

We at www.IndiaFreelancers.com are keenly aware of this. As time goes forward and we grow, we hope to be able to offer our freelancers an inexpensive way for them to be able to connect to and join a Health Insurance company in order to have health insurance.

We at IndiaFreelancers.com are dedicated to Freelancers and all about Freelancers. We know the concerns of our Freelancer community and are always looking to see what we can do to help make the wonderful freedom which comes from Freelancing be less risky.

In a post written in March of 2o1o on the blog site CurrentMom, a woman Freelancers lamented that she did not have “maternity leave” from her Freelancer job. She was offered a potentially good position regularly writing articles for a publication and lamented that she needed to make the decision whether to write the articles during her maternity time or pass up the opportunity. She lamented not having a “maternity leave” from her work as a Freelancer.

To say that you do not have a “maternity leave” from your position as a Freelancer is sort of wishing to have your things “both ways” if you will. The beauty of Freelancing is that you make your own schedules, work as little or as much as you wish and receive the wonderful benefits of choosing when you will have free time. By definition, having a paid “maternity leave” means that someone is “giving” you this time off and is paying you for that time. In that situation, this takes away the freedom that comes with Freelancing. If someone can “give” you the maternity leave then, by definition, they can “take it away”.

Part of the joy of Freelancing is the ability to choose one’s time; however that freedom comes with responsibilities. One is not “free” to yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater – if there is no fire. There are some responsibilities and curbs on one’s freedom that come with living in a large society. By the same token, there are responsibilities that come with the choices we make and one of them is that by choosing to work as a Freelancer, we do not have the “safety net” which an employer would “give” us with a maternity leave.

My suggestion for the mom in the story published above would be to look at it differently. By Freelancing, she is free to mold her schedule and her time around when her baby needs her. She does not have to leave the house and leave the baby with a baby sitter, drive downtown and punch in the clock. She can take the baby to the park in the morning and work on her Freelance project in the evening when the baby is taking a nap.

We on www.IndiaFreelancers.com certainly hope that our Freelancer moms enjoy the benefits of being able to set their own times and their own schedules by accepting only the jobs that they wish to accept on www.IndiaFreelancers.com.

Ranjiv P for IndiaFreelancers.com

In a recent article on the website Dazeinfo.com (April 2015) the topic of hourly rate was discussed as well as the difference in pay that male technical experts receive as compared with their female counterparts. The article quoted that the hourly rate paid to Freelancers from India is approximately $19 per hour which – the article states – is $2 less per hour than what other freelancers globally are earning.

In a world where the key to one’s success is increasingly what is in one’s head, it is horrible to see that the gender with which one was born still has an impact on things such as wages – even though female programmers, coders and technical experts are every bit as qualified as their male counterparts.

On www.IndiaFreelancers.com we strive to do all we can to level the playing field. Although we cannot decide what an employer and freelancers agree for their costs and payments, we can encourage our community of employers and freelancers to value a person’s intelligence, dedication and character above all else – including above his or her gender.

In the article mentioned above, they state that female technical experts receive, on average, approximately 11% less for doing the same work. Even in America – where women have made tremendous strides in being recognized for their work and not for their gender – there is as yet sometimes found a disparity between the wages paid to men versus the wages paid to women.

This article on Dazeinfo largely quoted a study conducted by Payoneer of 23,006 responses by technical professionals. We do not know if some of the many technical experts on www.IndiaFreelancers.com were among those interviewed for the Payoneer study.

In the 21st century we should strive to move past the 19th and 20th centuries. Women who do the same quality of work, with the same integrity and the same dedication should receive the same rate of compensation. It simply makes sense in today’s world.

Ranjiv P for IndiaFreelancers.com