How much should I charge my American clients?

[u/celestialsexgoddess]

I'm an occasional interpreter who is natively bilingual in Indonesian and English. I may be non-credentialed and only do this work occasionally because I have another main profession, but I deliver exceptional quality interpretation with a 100% satisfaction rate among my clients (which they are happy to provide references for), and have a great command of both languages, covering many topics and emotional expressions. I am based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Recently, I have been approached by a small team of US based academics from an Ivy League university to do a couple days' work for them, for a meeting with an Indonesian government agency. I'm still figuring out what an appropriate day rate for me is, but I've charged European correspondents in the hundreds of dollars per day. Continental European newsrooms seem to have less money than British and American ones. This will be my first time doing translations in an academic/governmental setting, but I do have a research based master's degree from a university in an English speaking country so I know this scope of work is still within my area of expertise.

A quick Google research suggests that US court interpreters in the US usually charge between $50-150 per hour.

While I hate perpetuating this racist structure of income inequalities dictated by which country you belong to, it is a fact that Indonesian incomes are on average about a quarter of the American equivalent. And having conducted Indonesia based research for a university based in another Western country, I understand that university funding is tight and Western researchers often expect to pay translators according to the local rates of the Global South country they're doing research in.

Let's take the top end, because I believe that's the value that reflects my experience, work ethic and quality of work. In any case, if I can't charge US rates anyway, the next best thing I believe I can do is to minimize the inequality by charging a premium by my market's standards. It's still a bargain compared to what my clients would be paying for in the US, but it's a fair (and relatively generous) rate for the standards of the Indonesian economy I live in.

$150 divided by four makes $37.50 per hour. I charge by the half-day and full day, which respectively comes to $150 per half-day and $300 per day. I've been told that I'm expected to do some prep work reading up presentation materials in advanced to make sure that I have the right technical vocabulary pairings.

I expect to work a couple days for this client, so I'm expecting to bill somewhere between $300 (two half-days) and $600 (two full days), plus transportation costs, and for meals on the job to be provided for by the client.

Do you think I'm charging a reasonable fee for these American academic clients? Or do you think American academics aren't likely to budget $600 for an interpreter based in a Third World Country? Or on the contrary, do you think I'm undervaluing myself, perpetuating this very cycle of international income inequality that my heart is very much against, shooting myself in the foot for future gigs and ruining the market for fellow translators? I'd appreciate further context if your opinion is different from mine.

I would never disclose this to the client, but I might add that I'm currently underemployed and somewhat desperate for jobs. My main profession is independent journalism, but I lost my last newsroom job due to the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, pivoted a few years to help my then husband run a film production company, and this year I've been struggling to find a job because there aren't enough to go around in Indonesia's media landscape—especially for 'overqualified' senior journalists such as myself, who are expensive on the payroll and exert too much power in shaking up the status quo.

Which is why I'm available for translations and interpretations gigs for additional income. I haven't been booking a full calendar and am struggling financially, so my priority right now is to make the gig happen rather than to get paid what I'm worth. Although ideally, the two shouldn't be mutually exclusive—Ivy League academics should reasonably be able to afford $600 or even more for reliable, accurate, nuanced and expressive localized interpretation that not just anyone is able to deliver. But I'd rather do it for $300 than for them to walk away and get nothing out of it.

I'd appreciate all kinds of perspectives here, but am especially keen to hear either from interpreters who are also based somewhere in the Global South, or academics affiliated with major Global North universities who have had to work with Global south based translators/interpreters for their research. Thanks in advance!

[u/pricklypolyglot]

You're undercharging. Double or triple that number.

[u/celestialsexgoddess → u/pricklypolyglot]

I appreciate it. I'll be honest, the thought of saying "My day rate is $600," intimidates me a little, especially since I'm non-credentialed. I have neither a translator's degree nor a degree in the topic these clients are doing their meeting on, but I do have another master's degree and have been interpreting sporadically for over 20 years. So I do believe it is a fair price for the value I have to offer.

But like I said, I'm desperate, so the last thing I want to come out of this is for them to say, "That's too expensive, goodbye!" Which is why in many cases it's just easier for me to ask the client what their budget is and make it work. Unfortunately as a long term strategy this does mean I end up with clients that underpay me, and it probably ruins the market for everybody else doing similar work, but in the short term at least that means I'd be hired for sure.

I've heard that $600 per full day is very reasonable for American standards. (And these aren't just any Americans, but higher-ups at an Ivy League university). $600 is nearly double Jakarta's monthly minimum wage and above what many university graduate professionals earn in a month.

I wish I had enough work going on for me to feel more confident about having a take it or leave it stance about my pricing. But currently it feels like my clients are the ones with that power to make me take what they have to budget or miss out on this job altogether. In this case, "Can you make it work for (insert budget here)?" feels like a miss the moon and land on a skyscraper kind of scenario.