It’s fair to charge the same price for the same work, right? Here’s the tricky part: there are at least two equally valid ways of defining “the same price”.
The first one is obvious: a client from Madrid, Spain, and a client from Tangiers, Morocco pay 200$ for my service- they paid the same price.
There is a second one though: The average salary in Tangiers is 467 USD, while in Madrid it is 2035 USD, according to Numbeo.com
We can safely assume that a Moroccan client’s eyes will pop out if you quote them 200 USD. Given the differences in cost of living, you would have to charge a client in Madrid 400 USD for the same service to get an equal reaction. In that case, the “pain” they feel would be similar enough that we could say they paid the same price, even if the Madrid price is, mathematically, 100% higher than the Tangiers one.
- The first approach could be called price equality – everyone pays the same amount of money.
- The second could be called price equity – everyone pays the same % of their monthly disposable income.
When setting your prices, choose the approach that fits you the best, but don’t be seduced by the idea that either of them is inherently, automatically fairer than the other. Both of them are logically sound but present an ethical trade-off that needs to be made. There are very few easy answers to questions of ” price fairness” and this is not one of them.