Minimum wage where you are is perhaps somewhat higher than minimum wage in many other parts of the World.
More than 80% of the World's population lives on less than $10 per DAY. If you live in one of those areas, and you can make that per hour, you can have a good life.
What's more, you're never going to be short of work, because people are going to look at you and realise you are the same skill-wise as the guy wanting $1k/day in London, so why not save some money and everybody is happy - even the $1k/day guy is happy because they are working for a client who values the work at that more than the client thinking "wait, I could get this done for less than a tenth of the price".
Over time (perhaps quite quickly once you've proven you can work well with clients in the EU and US), you can raise your rates, of course, and that's awesome for everybody.
It's just wise to not automatically presume that 10/hr is a bad rate for that individual in that circumstance - there's enough work going around for all of us that we can deal with the low-balling etc. from other countries.
Here in Denmark, the market rate is about 80-120 EUR/hour, so the same as Finland. I would speculate that across Scandinavia the rates are fairly similar.
I agree, but I do like to play devil's advocate here (just for a bit). Say you live in Thailand, what is wrong with making less? Or at least, a little less? You can still participate in the local economy.
Even in business, charging less is a sticky problem. It's next to impossible to raise your rates with a client base you've built up without alienating many of them. Because you've charged so low, you can't afford to drop any of them yet. Unfortunately, a lot of business can be through referral and they talk about rates too.
It can leave you in a hole that's next to impossible to get out of.
I understand your point, but in the end, isn’t it just market forces at work? I lived in Cambodia for two years, and I definitely charges a lot less than what I do now I’m back in Europe.
It made sense for me: with two weeks of work I could live comfortably for two or three months, and I still charged way below Western market rates, so I had no problems finding clients. And it allowed me to be picky about the type of work I would accept.
You need to think about your retirement savings which you might not want to spend in Cambodia. Also maybe you want to buy stuff that costs the same everywhere, like an iPhone or a new laptop that's not garbage quality.
I mean if it's necessary to compete in the market, maybe it makes sense to lower your rates. But as long as you can charge the appropriate rate, you should.
When you're charging less you're still earning the same amount of money for your client. So everything you charge less is you making them rich.
