Concept
Sliding scale pricing
Also known as: Pay what you can, Solidarity pricing
A pricing model where buyers choose what they pay within a stated range, typically based on income or capacity. The buyer with greater means pays more; the buyer with less pays less; access is preserved across economic strata. Common in healthcare (mental health, alternative medicine), arts and education, food (some CSAs and food co-ops), and increasingly in healing and bodywork practices. Closely related to gift-economy pricing but with structured guidelines that distinguish it from pure donation.
Common designs
- Tiered pricing — typically 3-5 tiers (e.g., $25 / $50 / $75 / $100 for the same service); buyer self-selects with guidance (“$25 if you struggle to pay rent, $50 if your needs are mostly met, $75 if you have surplus, $100 if you’re abundant and want to support broader access”)
- Pay-what-you-can with floor — buyer chooses any price above a minimum
- Suggested donation — fully voluntary, no minimum; closer to [[gift-economy|gift economy]]
- Income-percentage pricing — price set as a percentage of buyer’s income (often 0.1% - 1%)
- Pay-it-forward — buyer pays full price + supplemental amount that funds another buyer’s access; common in coffee shops and small restaurants
Where it works
- Healthcare and mental health — particularly therapy, alternative medicine, naturopathy, acupuncture, herbalism
- Education and workshops — especially in healing, spiritual, social-justice, somatic spaces
- Arts — performances, gallery admissions, classes
- Food — some CSAs (solidarity-share models), food co-ops, community meals
- Bodywork — massage, yoga classes, dance
- Childcare and elder-care in some community-supported settings
Why it’s used
- Access preservation — services remain available to lower-income community members
- Income equity — practitioners earn fair income from those who can pay full price
- Trust and relationship — sliding-scale signals that the practitioner trusts and respects the buyer to choose accurately
- Anti-extraction — rejects the framing of price as the maximum [[the-market|the market]] will bear
Common practical considerations
- Honest framing matters — guidelines that help buyers self-assess accurately (rather than always defaulting to the lowest price)
- Practitioner sustainability — sliding scales need to ensure the practitioner can sustainably operate
- Cultural fit — works in communities with shared values and trust; less workable in pure-transactional settings
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[gift-economy]] · [[regenerative-finance]]
Sources
- Reclaiming [[commons|the Commons]], [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] ed.
- Multiple practitioner accounts and movement publications
- The Gift, Lewis Hyde
Rooted in life.
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