Expected Salaries

[syngirl]

Hi Cassie -- I'm a bit confused, you say you're just out of college, but then you also say you're a professional and have experience.How old are you? Unfortunately in Argentina your salary doesn't necessarily have as much to do with your years of experience but with your age. Ridiculous but true. You can argue that you're not living with your parents so have greater expenses, but if you're a recent college grad that's about 22-25 years old, you''ll make better money working at a MacDonald's in the States than you will as a graphic designer here.

On the other hand, designers here try to leverage the market and get jobs online where they can charge in USD. One of the expat designers I know here is in his early-30s and his foreign contracts dried up with the economy, so he was forced to take a local contract here for awhile and is making about 3200 a month (pesos, so about 800 USD these days?). He figures he'll keep with it until he can get some foreign work back, but fortunately he already bought a place a few years ago, otherwise with that he'd really be struggling to make rent (especially as he was on a short term lease in USD before he bought).

 

[mrisley]

In my company, we pay graphic designers about $3000 in pocket. I would suggest getting out of BA and finding a nice sized town where expenses are much lower.

Good luck,

Mike

 

[stevexpat]

When we talk about salaries in the states we generally are talking pre-tax. The salaries here are generally after tax numbers, so that needs to be taken into account.

The salaries are still very low here, but US salaries are about 35-40% lower after taxes and lower still if you live in high tax states like NY and CA.

 

[cassiem13]

syngirl: I'm 2 years out of school, but have about 4 years of experience, as I started doing design professionally as soon as I had enough schooling to do so. I am still young though (in age, 24, and in my profession), but I do expect a higher salary than someone right out of school looking for their first professional job.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, that I get freelance jobs from the States. That would be ideal, of course, and I currently I have a couple of clients from the US that I'm working for, and one more waiting in the wings. I'd love to keep working that way, but the problem is self-promotion from another country...

As far as sites like 99designs.com go, that's an issue that a lot of designers (myself included) have a hard time coming to terms with. It's basically asking designers to do spec work (which is greatly discouraged by all the major professional design associations), in hopes that they'll get paid. It *might* be good for people who ARE fresh out of school and need to build their portfolio, but for the most part it results in a lot of designers doing a lot of work for free. Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more common. But c'mon, you wouldn't have 10 different plumbers come to fix a leaky pipe, and then pay the one you thought did the best job, right? Same sorta thing. Okay, I'll stop there, sorry, I could kinda go on about that forever.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Thanks, everyone, for contributing, it's really helped me out and hopefully you've provided a reference point for others in the future!

 

[Hockey_Nut]

In general terms you probally make in peso´s what you make in dollars in the US.

I think your dollar in the US can buy you a lot more then a peso in Argentina

 

[HowardinBA]

it,s all pay related....

 

[sergio]

Criswkh, you must have worked at a posh private school like St Andrews that hires a few teachers mostly from the UK and pays high salaries by local standards, usually plus free housing. The brother of a friend of mine works in a more normal private school. He is a biochemist, teaches science two days a week (about 12 teaching hours) and earns $800 pesos after taxes. I'd say this is a more realistic salary for Argentine teachers. You'll find that teachers here work AT LEAST two jobs. I know some who work three or four.

 

[ezequiel]

As Hockey_nut said, you should think about 1 U$S to 1 peso.
As I am in the business, I am sorry to say that you would be very lucky or need to show an amazing portfolio to get more than 2,500 - 3,000 pesos a month. And that is for a full time job, which means much more than 8 hours a day. Oh, and forget about taxes, because it would be rare if someone hired you en blanco for a design job. With luck, you could get a job that requires monotributo, but that means you need DNI, CUIT...

Good luck with your search.
If you have a portfolio or a website, send them to me via PM.

 

[ElQueso]

Another thing to think about at that price range (3000-4000 pesos a month) is your quality of life.

Apartments on 2 year rental contracts (not temporary) here can be difficult to get. Most leases require some sort of property in the city to back the lease. Yes, you technically have to own property, or know someone who owns property and is willing to risk their property, in order to rent an apartment. There are ways around this, including "buying" guarantees from people for usually something like 2 month's rent, which is very marginal at best and technically illegal, but I know some people who have gotten away with it.

It is possible to find owners who are willing to lease to people without a "guarantee", but it will be costly usually, if it's a good apartment. They might ask for a year or even the whole lease up front, as well as a security deposit against the possibility that you might not move out at the end of your contract, plus damages. If you were not a foreigner, they would probably not take the chance.

I have a friend who recently returned to the US who had found a place in Parque Patricias, in a somewhat rundown, shabby neighborhood (specifically his area, not all of PP) that didn't require anything but first and last month rent. The apartment was not very good. Dingy, old paint, peeling walls. Old tile, cracked, with dirty grout. A kitchen that was a tiny alcove barely big enough to hold a decent-sized refrigerator, a piece of plywood as a kitchen counter, a gas-driven flash hot-water heater that always went out, bare wires on the walls, etc. It did have two bedrooms, but the one bathroom was only half-finished. No air conditioning for the summer, very breezy and no heating for the winter, except for electric heaters that he bought.

He paid U$S 300 a month for that. That's about 1150 pesos now, but was only 900 pesos two years ago when the exchange was closer to 3-1. There may be better deals out there. A typical 2 year lease will have an increase in the second year - usually between 15% and 20%. You have to deal with inflation and the lack of buying power of the peso right now.

There are also hostels or pensiones. I don't know what kind of stay limit the hostels might have. The pensiones are usually dumps, at least the affordable ones, and may run from 500 pesos to 1000 pesos a month, the more expensive ones having bathrooms and a counter for a hot plate and a sink.

A lot of these pensiones will have "professional" women staying in them, many from Paraguay, or Columbia, o Boliva or Brasil, etc. Argentina has a very interesting outlook on "pay for play" sex. There are a number of clubs and private apartments that cater to quite a sex industry. On just about any block in the city, it is likely that there are one or more "privados" in one of the buildings you're looking at. You see paper adds taped to polls very often with pitcures of half naked girls on them, with telephone number tear-aways. The girls that work in these places are usually sending money home and living as cheaply as they can.

Forget about imported food, too expensive for the most part. Shop at the butcher shops for your meat, the vegetable stands for your veggies and fruits. Maybe go out to eat at local restaurants once or twice a week.

You can certainly live on 3000 to 4000 pesos a month (A LOT of people do), but it won't be near the standard of living you could have in the States, or earning money on contracts from the States (how I survive).

 

[KatharineAnn]

Good post ElQueso, although I think making 3000 to 4000 you can definitely live a good lifestyle in BA - it really depends on your situation and living style. For example, if you plan to live ALONE, your apartment costs will be outrageous, whereas if you live with a roomie it will be quite doable, meaning you'll spend less than half of your salary on apartment related expenses. It's possible to live really cheap here - but like ElQueso said you have to learn to adapt to your new standard of living - it's not the same as in the US.

But if you're here to enjoy being in a new place and appreciate what this city has to offer, it shouldn't matter that you have to give up fancy electronics and the consumerist frenzy that is the US. Besides, you can always go back when you get tired of it here

I would love to find a job that pays 3000 - 4000 pesos personally, because that is considered a very good salary for a young person (under 30) here...I unfortunately did not study anything useful at university and am of course paying for that now But at least we liberal artsers have a good time....right??