It’s been five years since the proposal of an annual inflation adjustment to NUBSLI’s fee guidance. It was brought to the committee’s attention that the guidance figures were slowly slipping behind the cost of living… back then, ‘cost of living’ was a phrase barely uttered.  The proposal mentioned that eroding fees might be noticeable in a decade.

By conducting an annual poll to update the guidance between full surveys, we hoped agencies and other purchasers of our services would be able to make smaller, regular adjustments to their budgets rather than facing bigger changes every three or four years. But holding the first inflation update poll in 2022 didn’t quite give us the gentle introduction we’d hoped for!

The subsequent inflationary highs of 14% made the power of inflation a very real part of our lives. Between January 2020 and December 2024, prices rose by 35% – making this the most challenging period to campaign for fair pay since 1981.

Now inflation is around 3.5% – we’ll hopefully see smaller, more predictable changes to the fee guidance that help people to regularly review their budgets and plan for the future. 

There aren’t many people out there who began interpreting because they wanted to become entrepreneurs – our profession is a vocation. Nevertheless, as freelancers who set our own fees, we need to have conversations with clients when our costs change. These discussions can be tricky, especially if they happen out of the blue.

While agencies and other companies booking interpreters have staff responsible for planning and managing their budgets, and are well aware that service costs rise with inflation – our AtW clients face a different reality.

Unlike agencies, our direct AtW clients manage their interpreting budgets themselves, on top of the job they’re paid to do. This Deaf labour is something we can ease by giving clients plenty of notice that our fees are changing, as well as becoming familiar with the intricacies of how Access to Work functions (or doesn’t!). You can learn more on DeafATW.com – a fantastic resource for both interpreters and Deaf grant holders. ASLI also provides CPD webinars on AtW.

Workers fighting for fees to follow inflation are not fighting for a pay rise… they’re fighting to be paid the same as we were yesterday and last year.

Raising fees to keep pace with inflation doesn’t mean we’re better off… it only means we aren’t losing out.

Keeping pace with inflation is particularly important for the interpreting profession. Not only does this help attract new interpreters to combat the national shortage, but it also ensures that more experienced professionals aren’t further disadvantaged.

Interpreters’ income is fairly flat throughout their careers – most contracts are indifferent to whether someone has 20 years of experience or qualified yesterday.

Other professions recognise that people’s skills increase over time. For example, compared to a newly qualified teacher – someone who has been teaching for three years earns 20% more. After five years, they’ll earn nearly 40% more, and the most experienced teachers working for more than ten years can earn up to 55% more than they did when first qualified (without taking on leadership roles or other responsibilities).

Even with the latest update to our guidance – interpreters are still charging on average 7.8% less for a day’s work than they would be if fees had kept pace with inflation since 2015 – and interpreters who have kept their fees at the same level as the 2024 guidance are earning 10.9% less for a day’s work.

It’s also important to note that the guidance is just that – a guide. The fees are calculated from the average of what interpreters tell us they’ll be charging this year. We don’t dictate what interpreters should charge – we’re helping people who manage interpreting budgets set their expectations.

As freelancers, interpreters are free to set their own fees. Some newly qualified interpreters may charge less than the guidance – while some experienced interpreters and those working in specialist domains may charge more.

As mentioned before – interpreters’ earnings over their career are typically fairly flat. Our work is a vocation, and few of us think of ourselves as entrepreneurs. For some, the updating of NUBSLI’s fee guidance is a prompt to reassess their own charges, and consider whether their income covers their bills, puts food on the table, allows them to save for illness, pay into a pension, and invest in their skills through CPD and supervision – as well as all the other costs of working as an interpreter.

Interpreters’ inflation-adjusted fees have fallen in the decade since NUBSLI was founded. If we want to address the shortage of interpreters in the UK, our profession must offer a career that won’t leave people poorer as the years go by.