Criticisms of outsourcing *
Social responsibility
•Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to,
which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution
of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower
paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work.
Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately
unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.
•On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is
unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because
the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate
for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of
buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they
sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products,
services, or employees.
•Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers.
Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits
to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction
in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction
in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.
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