Also, everyone has their own needs. I don’t like people telling me how I must handle my freelance writing business and what type of wage I’m supposed to accept. It’s my career after all. People are quick to offer one-size-fits-all “solutions” which will supposedly increase your writing income. But they are slow to understand different people have different lifestyles.

Livable all depends on what you feel is important to you and for me that is waking up every morning and being well enough to hug my kids, kiss my wife and let the chickens out of the pen. After that, it’s all a bonus. Cheers Perry

Here’s why: we are NOT alone in earning less than we feel we’re worth. And we can make choices that will radically increase our income.

Re Not being alone:

In theory (for example) we see care of our young children and infants as so important that many women leave their careers to be available to their little ones. Yet preschool teachers make $10-$15 per hour.

Clergy, in general, are paid poorly (many, with masters degrees and years of experience, make $40K or less).

NonProfit managers, educators, writers, fundraisers, etc at museums, theaters, social service agencies and even health care institutions make less than similarly credentialed people in for-profit settings.

Re doing better financially:

I’ve seen many peers do better than me financially, because they actively chose a more lucrative career (law, medicine, business). I certainly could have chosen to go into those fields, but I didn’t. I had my eyes open – and could easily see that the arts, social service, and science typically are less lucrative than business.

We can make different choices if we so choose! In fact (just fyi) – a writer who specializes in, say, pharmaceutical sales brochures, can make a WHOLE lot more money than a writer who blogs exclusively. Same goes for ad copy writing, and even grant writing.

I personally want to do it all – and as a result, I make a moderate to good income. I could easily imagine someone doing a whole lot better than I, though, just by specializing differently.

Lisa

I think $10/hour is an insulting wage (nevermind whether or not it’s livable). Good writing, especially when paired with other skills, such as marketing, design or SEO, is worth much, much more than that. Years of experience plus graduate-level education should warrant more than $10/hour. But I understand this post is about a livable wage.

For me, a livable wage is nothing less than $25/hour. Of course, that’s only because I’d like to continue paying bills on time, save for retirement, save for a rainy day and maintain good credit. But maybe that’s just me.

Basically for me a living wage is $10 an hour but only because we get government assistance for the kids (everybody earning under $150K a year gets the benefit on a sliding scale)and so on so I could actually make nothing and still afford to live. Mind you we live on a budget, don’t smoke or gamble and we save and pay cash for everything, no loans or credit cards. We also save the first 10% of every dollar we get and I run our house like a business.

So I consider myself a wealthy man, and free to boot. I shudder when I read how my American brothers and sisters have to pay $700 a month for healthcare or stick at lousy jobs just in case a loved one gets sick. As for having a degree, last year I did a Master of Arts in Writing, was paid while I studied and will only ever pay the tuition back by installments when my taxable income exceeds $40K pa. Given I had robotic mitral valve surgery this year where we spent more on visitor parking than medical expenses I really would be wasting my life and my good fortune to be an Australian if I didn’t follow my dream and write fulltime. So for me it’s not so much a case of what is a living wage but how can I not afford to write?

That’s a factor for many though. I have a friend whose husband would love to work from home by becoming self-employed, but they need the insurance coverage, so until their daughter is grown, they don’t want to risk it.

If I didn’t have that insurance coverage, I’m not convinced I’d still be working from home.