In the past 5 years, the USD:INR has improved 15% for the Indian freelancers, while the AUD:USD has improved 40% for Australian freelancers.
The India/Australia wage gap should have closed somewhat because of exchange rates alone.
Indian real wage growth is about 5% per year vs 0.5% in Australia (accounting for inflation). So Australia should have become more competitive in the past 5 years (Indians demanding higher wages than previously, while Australians aren't).
But the wage gap is still wide at around $16k vs $64k USD per year.
Freelancing is probably a tough gig for Australians. Sourcing high-paying clients then outsourcing the work to overseas might be a more profitable plan.
I never ended up becoming a freelancer or professional developer, but an intermediate developer and full time online business person, with just enough skills to build and run my own websites successfully. Over the years, part of my Australian-advantage was that English language content pays more in ad income (especially for US traffic), and Australian E-commerce can have good margins (when not competing with China by selling small or common products).
But shops in Australia like Target are seriously cheap, so margin will vary drastically by niche.
The change in AUD:USD has been annoying for me, since I've been doing more importing to Australia than having USD income.
FLN Price at posting:
81.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Not Held
