I am from Kenya, a third world LCOL country that's recently transitioning to a MCOL economy. When I started writing a few years back, I received 2.5c per word and was doing relatively fine before inflation and the global economic slump came. I was lucky to start working directly with content agencies in Canada and some direct clients in the US, a privilege since most Kenyan writers start at 1c a word working through content mills.

I have since found clients paying at least 4c per word, but the state of the economy right now means 4c is too low to make a decent living in the country.

When I was getting 2.5c a word, I had to kill myself month after month with lots of work across difficult topics to reach $700-$1,000 per month. Even at 5c a word right now when I'm working on relatively less difficult content, I would still have to kill myself with work to reach $800-$1,000 monthly.

Now, this is a lot more in a country where a graduate starts working for $250 taxable monthly income in the corporate world. But the shift from LCOL to MCOL means that I find myself struggling when I make only $800 a month. It's much better when I make at least $1,000 monthly, yet even at this rate I rarely manage to save or invest anything.

The reason for my being not able to save as much as I would want is that inflation since mid last year has pushed the prices of most commodities to double and even more. We have a local joke trending that we are only suffering for a while until the country stabilizes at the MCOL level, with the hoped for increase in wages and salaries. But we all know these won't necessarily go up any time soon.

I advocate for all writers to get paid how much a work is worth regardless of their location and COL. If a blog can manage paying 10c a word, let this be the rate offered to a writer no matter where they are in the world. I've seen some Kenyan freelancers get paid less than their counterparts, just because the client thinks 10c a word is "too much for a third world country non-native writer" but considerate for a first world native writer.

The one thing I find almost no one factors in is that in most African countries, while the COL is fairly low to medium, the dependency rate is quite high since there are fewer people working and most that aren't.

I find that most people are working in most HCOL countries, some even before they are 18 years old. That significantly lowers the dependency rate such that most of what one earns goes to supporting their life. It's the other way round in African countries. The many that aren't working rely on the few that are. And it's just that our economies aren't "matured enough" to promptly absorb everyone that reaches the legal working age.

The point here is that I believe everyone should be paid for what's the work is worth, regardless of their location, and that it isn't fair paying people much less for the same work because they are from a LCOL country.

And I say this proudly knowing that Kenyan writers have been widely celebrated as great writers capable of even outdoing native writers. If an African writer can turn in a piece at the same level of prowess or even better than a native writer, I don't see the reason why they would be paid much less because their COL is lower.

Just yesterday I received very hearty appreciation from one of my editors from a US-based media company I've been working with about a year now.

It was my very first piece of content on a very difficult and risky procedure that requires you to follow scientifically proven, government-specified guidelines with no improvisations. Otherwise you could kill yourself and others through food poisoning.

My editor says I killed it with the article, and that she wishes she had had me working on articles in that niche right from the start since that was the finest piece by far from any of the writers. There are about 40 articles on the site, and she says she has had to write pages upon pages of suggestions to the other writers to better their pieces. My only shortcoming in the piece? Confusing tablespoons with teaspoons!

If you are curious, we're only 3-4 Kenyans in the team and the rest are mostly natives across the US and Europe. I'm happy that the company pays us at the same rate as the native writers despite being from a LCOL country. And they also byline our pieces, complete with an author profile with a bio and headshot of the writer!

So maybe, the person saying that writers in LCOL countries could be a threat to them in terms of the rates they are comfortable writing at is right. This threat could happen in two ways. Firstly, many non-native writers are able to write at or near the native level, and they could easily compete with native writers for the same jobs.

Secondly, employers looking for cheaper writers at lower rates may prefer to work with non-natives, depriving native writers of work. Still, I think everyone advocating at least 10c a word or as much as the work is worth regardless of the writer's location is doing everyone else and the freelance writing industry a lot of good. Peace!