(no subject)

[Khin]

I've read on the TKZ OT forum about your job, and found out you earn more or less $9.75?

That made me feel unsure..you see, I'm a professional programmer and i earn P400 a day..now $1=P56. You seem to be making more money with that store your working on  :huh:

By the way, how much is the cost of living there? You're in Canada, right?
Everyday i spend P100, which includes my transportation and my lunch. You can afford lunch here at P30.

I'm just curious.

[Spyder]

weird..., yeah, I actually live in the state of Arizona, in the USA. I earn $9.65 (P542) an hour, and if I go over 40 hours in one week, each hour after that in the same week is time-and-a-half, so about $14.48 per hour. I'm not sure how to find out the cost of living in AZ. I get ~$1100-$1200 a month (P61,900-P67,500)after taxes are taken out working 40 hour weeks at my job. Sounds like the cost of living in the Philippines is damn cheap though. I think professional programmers here in the states probably start somewhere around $60,000 per year (~P3,373,800), give or take $10,000. That's just a rough estimate, so don't take my word for it. It comes out to about P13,000 a day though if you work 5 days a week :blink: . I get about $16,000 a year (~P900,000) at my current job before taxes are taken out, which comes out to ~P3,460 per day. I take the bus for transportation, and it costs $1.25 (P70) each way. On a typical day at work, I'll spend ~$3.50 (P197) for lunch and snacks throughout the day, and that's pretty much all I spend on food during the week, though sometimes I'll spend up to $10 (P562) if I'm hungary and I have extra money. On weekends, it can get much more expensive, spending up to $20 in one day on food.

By my estimates, you make ~P104,000 a year if you work 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. That's about $1850 USD, less than I make in two months  :huh:

Basically, if you worked here in the US, and sent your money back to your family in the Philippines, they'd be pretty well off Razz

[Xavier]

Khin - Pay is almost always higher in the US, or UK, or parts of Europe in every respect, and often by larger margins. Partially due to the costs of living being much higher, but also because of the good state of the economy.

If Spyder is earning more than you at JCPenny's (no disrepect, Spyder), then you'd be earning A LOT more as a professional programmer in US/UK/etc. Of course, there are so many people like yourself that it's a bit saturated.

In fact, a lot of British and American businesses diliberately close down factories in their own countries and build them in Asian nations because they get to play the workers A LOT less, but still pay them - for that country - a decent wage.

Hence immigration of Asian programmers, engineers, doctors is so prolific...and that's partly engineered by the western Governments to encourage talented foreigners to work there.

[Spyder]

None taken ^_^

Ironically, I think I'm being underpaid Razz

[Haraldur]

None taken ^_^

Ironically, I think I'm being underpaid Razz

Ah, because of the capitalist system you are not receiving the full result of your productivity because of the ownership of the Capitalists of means of production, and deduction from your rightful wage to make profits. You are being exploited.

 Razz  Hehehe...

[Zyrshnikashnu]

Thanks for that, Marx.

[Khin]

hmmm...thanks for that Wink

Actually, me and Ashe have plans of working abroad, since it really does pay off. I just didn't know that it pays off that much (don't worry, i'm not taking your word for it, though the estimate is quite feasible). As it seems i'm gonna be able to build a mansion here in the Phil if I just send money from the states. Very Happy

Right now Ashe is arranging some papers for work in Dubai(Saudi Arabia). I have a classmate who works there. We just graduated from university last S.Y. 2004, and normal starting wage for programmers (locally) is as high as P15,000 a month...but my classmate, being in Dubai, earns a converted net value of P25,000;

And Xavier's points were true too..ah..what a greedy world of businessmen...

[Spyder]

Out of curiousity..what does a copy of WindowsXP Pro go for in the Philippines?

[Khin]

what do you mean?
the price?

Original ones(which are very very hard to find) can cost up to P40,000 (estimate, though win98 costs P34,000)
Even other original software like Photoshop, 3DSMax, as well as games costs tens of thousands.

Pirated ones, which you buy everywhere costs P100 per CD.
Although I get very confused at times, because even on big malls here that has branches at every city has stores that sells CD's for P100. The cover is neat, so is the CD, unlike those pirated ones I see on a common vendor. But they cost so cheap compared to original..plus they're not being raided for selling those stuff unlike the vendors who get a weekly dose of confiscations.

[Spyder]

Wow, P40,000, that's expensive then. In USD that's ~$715. A full version of XP Professional with Service Pack 2 costs ~$270, or P15,120 here in the states. No wonder there's more pirated than legal copies there

[Xavier]

Not suprising at all if you know anything about commerce. Just throw in the factors of weak or strong currencies, goods taxes, import taxes, export taxes...all adds up. Not to mention some countries include tax in the retail price, like England, whereas the US doesn't. So direct comparisons arn't always valid.

For example, it's cheaper for us British to import in some cases because the Pound is strong and currencies like the Dollar are weak - so we get great deals for things like electronics from abroad.

[Spyder]

Yeah, but he's saying that WinXP costs nearly 3 times as much in the Phillipines... it would definately be cheaper to import. I also don't understand quite why it would cost so much. It's not as if shipping prices to the Phillipines are outragous, and taxes wouldn't add "that" much, so why wouldn't shop owners simply buy from the US, and sell at half the price that other retailers there were selling it for?

[Xavier]

Actually, you're mistaken. If the Peso is incredibly weak against the US Dollar, you get less for each dollar. Thus prices for importing rocket...and you can ONLY import goods like that.

However, I do believe the Phillipines have a tax treaty with the US to prevent double taxes. As for VAT, it's actually just 10% (7.5% lower than the UK).

But imported goods do have the additional taxes of customs duties, excise taxes and incidental charges.

But I'd put most of the price hike down to the strength (or lack of it) of the currency in relation to the Dollar maybe.

[Khin]

Okay, I did some research after my WinXP reply to check about the validity of my estimate.

<a href='http://www.pcx.com.ph/catalog/products.asp?id=95' target='_blank'>Here's a local PC store pricelist</a>

 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional P 8,300.00  

 Microsoft Windows 98 2nd Edition P 5,500.00  

 Microsoft Windows ME P 4,600.00  
   
 Microsoft Windows XP Home P 5,200.00  
   
 Microsoft Windows XP Professional P 8,800.00

I am horrible at pricing things, so I am deeply sorry, but it's true about the Win98 OS. Two years ago out of curiosity I asked a salesperson how much does thier licensed Win98 cost, she said P34,000.
I guess the price went very low or the salesperson was mistaken. Eitherway, sorry for the mix-up. Sad

[Spyder]

Yeah, those prices look much more accurate. See Vampz, I wasn't wrong after all  ^_^ . Those WindowsXP discs must be either an upgrade or OEM editions.