[dominicyen]

I attribute low wages to the lack of education of industry-standard rates. The author brings up a great point about the concealment of pricing amongst creatives to prevent others from knowing your annual income. How can students be expected to know how much to charge when their instructors and peers aren't inclined to speak openly about their numbers?

Without this baseline of information, young designers (myself included) fall into the trap of pricing far below market due to misinformed notions of 'this is great experience!' or 'I need to get my name out there'.

An aside: Qualified is an ambiguous term in relation to design. Expand on what you consider 'qualified' please.

[Dylanlacey]

I think concealment is a big problem in most industries, and one of the main reasons companies try the "not allowed to discuss your salary" trick. The other one is so that people who aren't as well paid as others but think (or are) better at the same (or harder) jobs don't get fed up and either demand more or leave.

So... Ultimately talking about your salary hurts no-one honest and open. Because trying to prevent staff from being unhappy at being unfairly compensated OR having to pay a fair wage isn't either of those things.

[tgrass]

I'm thinking economically: qualified in my use means that a client is willing to pay for the end product.