The Government has put down standards and regulations about minimum wages, in order to make certain employees are not exploited. This has to be considered a good move, I feel, as often those who were being paid below what could be thought of a living wage were the more at risk members of society. They would be weak perhaps because of a shortage of formal education, or it could be they arrived in the UK in order to gain employment, but because their own country was poor could think a very low pay here to be good money in comparison to their equivalent salary in their own country.
For folk who Work From Home, it is much harder to know whether or not they are being given the national minimum wage, as there is no simple way to actually see how many hours of work were being done to achieve the required outcome. If you Work From Home for an Internet Business, then there is the chance that many of your tasks will be Online Jobs, and therefore it would be viable to make a realistic guess as to how many hours any worker was working on line every day but for businesses not reliant on the worldwide web it may be much less clearcut.
For my Internet Business, although lots of my jobs are Online Jobs, I also am required to do research, so can spend time out and about, finding inspiration and information. When I am caught up in this research, I find time slips away from me. I am not watching the clock and I can spend many hours working on spotting information without being aware of this.
If I were to work out my current hourly rate, because my Internet Business is relatively new, I would most likely find that it falls far short of government regulations, but I look at the bigger picture, where I see myself six months from now, and at that time my hourly rate should, if I work well, be far in excess of the national minimum, so over the course of a year I would definitely hope to be above the national minimum wage level, even having started from such a low figure.
Many folk who Work From Home are self employed and therefore they are setting their own rates of pay and could be seen not to be exploiting anybody other than themselves. If they are content to accept a low wage in order to get their company off the ground and have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves in the longer term, then I think this is an acceptable way of thinking.
Being paid a low rate by some other firm who advise that home workers can earn a good sum on piece work, as long as their work meets exacting quality checks is probably not such a good deal. It is fine if you are skilled in this field and can work quickly and efficiently, but if not the hourly rate you are paid for the number of items you can produce is probably very low. Unless you think you could pick up pace over time, then this is probably not a good role to choose.
Take time out every so often to evaluate your hourly rate. See whether you could improve it by working more cleverly and whether there is the likelihood for it to become a well paid role in the future. If it seems to be going nowhere, then consider whether this is really the right role for you.
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