employee-compensation, contractors, entrepreneurism-abroadI am in the US working on a web application. I have contracted work to a web developer in India with whom I have been working for for almost 1 month. I paid the developer their asking price per hour for the first project. I told them we would see how the project would go and then I would offer more if things went well. They went well, so I increased their hourly rate by 25% and paid a small bonus at the end of the last week. I plan to continue to offer financial incentives, likes bonuses, where I can.
Because this is a bootstrapped venture, I am paying as much as I currently can. I think the person is worth more, but I have been working on ideation and project design for about 14 months myself; the web framework was in place when they came along. Months of studying a variety of technical disciplines contributed to the design decisions. I have not paid myself a dime or received a dime from anyone else for services rendered at this time.
The business plan is roughly on schedule, but there is currently no customer base to speak of. We are still working on a couple of features that are critical. This means no revenue, funding, or valuation at this time. Are there legal ways to incentivize a contract developer working abroad? At the risk of asking a subjective question, does this sound like fair compensation thus far?
As you have kept payments as per your word, anything on top of that is goodwill. Also it will help you to comeback to him as need arises or even hire him in future. Most important thing is not to raise his expectation and not able to adhere it. That mentioned appreciation and possibly referring him elsewhere might be a great thing for him till you cannot afford to pay him extra.
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