A Sliding Scale For Equity

FINANCIAL EXCHANGE AND PRICING FOR MY OFFERINGS 

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Please take the time to read this page in its entirety if you’d like to pay less than the listed price for an offering.  If you know it’s fair for you to pay the listed price, please read this page as an example, resource and education toward new models of economic justice and awareness of financial privilege. A lot of thought, time and intention, on behalf of a lot of people, has gone into creating this sliding scale, which can be replicated for any product or service. 

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Not everyone can or should pay the same price for this work. A dollar is not the same dollar in our current systems of power and privilege.  It is and has always been important to me that the spaces I create be accessible to everyone, while still making a fair living for my creative work and life. Only recently have I been led to a model of a sliding scale for economic justice that accounts for the many complexities that determine financial privilege, while allowing me to price my offerings at fair value, and allowing those who face systemic barriers to resources and support to still particpate as an essential part of this community fabric. A sincere thank you to Janeen Singer of Janeen Singer Dreamwork and Studio for her example, encouragement and spark of education in this realm, which has led me to many other wonderful resources who I’ll reference on this page. 

 

WHAT IS A SLIDING SCALE?

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A sliding scale is a tool for building economic justice, and it requires your active participation. If a sliding scale is implemented effectively, everyone pays a similar percentage of their income for the same products or services. A wide range of payment options across the scale promotes broader accessibility, while insuring fair compensation to the producer. Paying according to one’s available resources creates a more equitable system for pricing of products and services.

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This scale is intended to be a map, inviting each person to take inventory of their financial resources and look deeper at their levels of privilege or systemic barriers. It is a way to challenge the classist and capitalistic society we live in and work towards economic justice as a community.

 

Sliding scales are often based on individual income levels, with people of higher incomes paying more. However, many factors complicate and affect our financial status. Some groups of people have costs that the larger population does not. Others have access to resources that are not always reflected in their lifestyle choices and income levels. Please consider both your class background and earning power when choosing your price.

Thank you to Little Red Bird Botanicals and Kelly McCarthy of Attic Apothecary  for the above articulation.

 

HOW THIS SLIDING SCALE WORKS

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This sliding scale works through your active participation in determining where you fall in the scale, which is based on trust, honesty and accountability. Each offering I create reserves a certain number of discounted slots, and a certain amount of full-pay slots.

 

TO DETERMINE YOUR COST FOR MY OFFERINGS…

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1. Read this page and the following visual models and bullet-pointed maps to locate yourself on the sliding scale.

2. Based on your location in the spectrum of financial privilege, choose the fair price on the sliding scale you wish to pay by emailing me.

3. If you need further assistance, please email me to talk about a scholarship opportunity.

 

My email:  ktisdelconsulting@gmail.com

 

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Consider paying at the full-cost or higher on the scale if you…

• own the home you live in

• have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money

• travel for recreation

• have access to family money and resources in times of need

• work part time or are unemployed by choice, including unemployment due to full-time school in a degree-earning program

• are able to repay your student loans, are in repayment or have paid off vour student loans

• have emplover health insurance and/or other insurance and/or other emplover benefits

• have daily reliable transportation

• are able to miss work either for sickness or leisure and are still able to pay next month’s bills

• Can travel when needed especiallv for an unexpected occasion like a family funeral or a family funeral or emergency

• work part time or are unemployed by choice, including unemployment
  due to full-time school in a degree-earning program

• have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education (or gender and racial privilege, class background, etc.) Even if you are not currently exercising your earning power, I ask you to recognize this as a choice.

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Consider investing less on the scale if you..

•  are eligible for public assistance

•  have medical expenses not covered by insurance

• have immigration-related expenses

• are a refugee, migrant or asylum-seeker

• are undocumented

• are an elder with limited financial support

• are an unpaid community organizer

• have significant debt (not debt from assets)

• have inherited debt rather than assets 

• are unable to work because of a chronic illness or longstanding acute illness

• are a returning citizen who has been denied work due to incarceration history

• experience discrimination in hiring or pay level

• have been cut off from family resources and financial support because you are part of the LGBTQAI community

• are of Japanese descent- I live within the square mileage of a former post-WWII Japanese Internment camp and acknowledge this specific history in the physical place I call home

• are descended from enslaved people or Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples (I recognize and acknowledge that much of my privilege has come at the historical and present-day systematized disadvantage and expense of these communities).

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Thank you to Little Red Bird Botanicals, Kelly McCarthy of Attic Apothecary and Britt Hawthorne’s “Embracing An Equitable Sliding Scale”  article for majority of the above bullet points.