4 ms·

You simply were never the target audience in the first place.

by muzmath 11y ago

ghaff 11y ago
In general, in Western economies, personal services that don't benefit significantly from scale or automation are going to seem reasonably expensive unless you are in the very top tier of income. Consider that $15/hour is about the wage floor and you probably need to add transit time and other overheads for an independent contractor. So, yeah, it's hard to see a couple of hours of work costing less than $50 or so. And, if this is a weekly or more frequent expense, that starts to add up. I have a housecleaner come in every few weeks and it does help to keep my place in some semblance of order, but it's definitely a luxury expense and I would probably be too cheap to have it done weekly.
- nilkn 11y ago
  The wage floor is way below $15/hour in much of the country, but I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that Homejoy's pricing was static and independent of location. Does it make sense for someone in a modest cost-of-living area to be paying San Francisco rates?
  - ghaff 11y ago
    Minimum wage is less in general but I'm pretty certain that if I took an ad out on Craigslist to get someone to come over to my house to do some task, you'd be looking at $15-20 an hour at least. As you say, I'm sure it would depend on the area.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    > The wage floor is way below $15/hour in much of the country As a W2 employee, yes. If you're asking someone to work as a 1099 and eat their own self-employment taxes, transit costs, etc, that's going well below minimum wage.
    - nilkn 11y ago
      Minimum wage W2 employees almost never get any sort of transit costs covered. If they have to live 2 hours away because that's the only place they can afford housing, then it's on them to pay for transportation there and back. They also get bottom of the barrel benefits. Minimum wage can be as low as $7.25 for W2 employees. This calculator suggests that corresponds to only $10/hour for a contractor: http://www.rate-calculators.com/ http://www.rate-calculators.com/ I find ghaff's argument more compelling: people will pay more simply because they want someone they can trust in their home.

You simply were never the target audience in the first place.

by muzmath 11y ago

You simply were never the target audience in the first place.

ghaff 11y ago

In general, in Western economies, personal services that don't benefit significantly from scale or automation are going to seem reasonably expensive unless you are in the very top tier of income. Consider that $15/hour is about the wage floor and you probably need to add transit time and other overheads for an independent contractor. So, yeah, it's hard to see a couple of hours of work costing less than $50 or so. And, if this is a weekly or more frequent expense, that starts to add up. I have a housecleaner come in every few weeks and it does help to keep my place in some semblance of order, but it's definitely a luxury expense and I would probably be too cheap to have it done weekly.

nilkn 11y ago
The wage floor is way below $15/hour in much of the country, but I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that Homejoy's pricing was static and independent of location. Does it make sense for someone in a modest cost-of-living area to be paying San Francisco rates?
- ghaff 11y ago
  Minimum wage is less in general but I'm pretty certain that if I took an ad out on Craigslist to get someone to come over to my house to do some task, you'd be looking at $15-20 an hour at least. As you say, I'm sure it would depend on the area.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > The wage floor is way below $15/hour in much of the country As a W2 employee, yes. If you're asking someone to work as a 1099 and eat their own self-employment taxes, transit costs, etc, that's going well below minimum wage.
  - nilkn 11y ago
    Minimum wage W2 employees almost never get any sort of transit costs covered. If they have to live 2 hours away because that's the only place they can afford housing, then it's on them to pay for transportation there and back. They also get bottom of the barrel benefits. Minimum wage can be as low as $7.25 for W2 employees. This calculator suggests that corresponds to only $10/hour for a contractor: http://www.rate-calculators.com/ http://www.rate-calculators.com/ I find ghaff's argument more compelling: people will pay more simply because they want someone they can trust in their home.