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Poll: Do you increase your rates according to the increase in the cost of living?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 12:18
English to Spanish
+ ...
Cost of living is squeezing income Jan 4, 2012

Minoru Kuwahara wrote:

I'm being greatly suffering from hyper JPN against both USD and EUR. Some months back, I explained the situation in a brief manner to agencies I had records of working many times, and negotiate for raising then-current rates, but simply most of them were not quite willing to respond to my requests for the reason that their "standard" rates were lower than my suggestive rates (which I found out are not that much on higher side after hearing from some colleagues what they offer).

For now (probably into the next couple of years), honestly I'm beginning to be concerned about expected income shortage under the condition that I live in Japan while most of my incomes come from USD or EUR.

[Edited at 2012-01-04 05:13 GMT]


I empathize with Minoru's situation. Japan has suffered greatly due to last year's 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns. It must be very expensive to make a living there.

On my part, however, I don't raise my rates on the basis of cost of living. I just look for additional customers.
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:18
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Jan 4, 2012

My clients - international organizations - dictate the rates. They are negotiated for the United Nations family or organizations, and cost of living is a factor that goes into the calculation.

Based on what they pay me (which is generous), I try to bring my other clients into line. If the gap gets too large, I drop the clients.
 
Katarzyna Lewandowska, PhD
Katarzyna Lewandowska, PhD
Poland
Local time: 18:18
English to Polish
+ ...
in Poland it's the translators who set the rates and they are very low now Jan 4, 2012

The problem is that people who order translations are often not able to tell a good one from a bad one, and they are not willing to pay more to a qualified translator, and instead they pay less to a person who charges less. Even such rare languages as Scandinavian languages are very badly paid now.
 
Minoru Kuwahara
Minoru Kuwahara
Japan
Local time: 01:18
English to Japanese
+ ...
True, but... Jan 6, 2012

Mario Chavez wrote:

I empathize with Minoru's situation. Japan has suffered greatly due to last year's 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns. It must be very expensive to make a living there.



Hi Mario, it's true that those elements are more or less affecting; however, for someone like myself who mostly works with agencies worldwide, the economic downturn in North America and the financial crisis in Europe are stronger factors of decrease in our incomes. This is pretty much evident.
 
Minoru Kuwahara
Minoru Kuwahara
Japan
Local time: 01:18
English to Japanese
+ ...
From USD to JPY, is that the same rate? Jan 11, 2012

ikeda45 wrote:

Exactly.

But one of my major clients was willing to change the currency from USD to JPY.
And I'm grateful to that. At present I don't take projects with USD rate.



Hello ikeda-san,

I simply wonder if you are getting positive results by converging the currency from USD to JPY, and also if that is the same standard of rate when you were working in USD. I know agencies themselves are also concered about exchange rate from experience.
 
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Poll: Do you increase your rates according to the increase in the cost of living?






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