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Lived Impact Guide 03
Getting Paid for Your Expertise.
You should never be asked to share your lived experience for free. This guide covers what fair compensation looks like, how to benchmark your rates, and how to advocate for yourself when organisations push back.
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"How organisations pay people with lived experience tells you everything about how much they actually value that expertise."
There is a long history in the human services sector of asking people with lived experience to contribute for free — to share their stories, sit on advisory groups, review policies, co-design services, and educate staff. This guide is about changing that. Starting with you.
Rate benchmarks
A tiered remuneration model across advisory, governance, speaking, and consulting roles — so you know what to ask for.
Negotiation scripts
Real language for the "we have no budget" conversation, and how to respond when organisations push back.
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Lived Impact Guide
Getting Paid for Your Expertise
Written for advocates, peer workers, and lived experience consultants who are done being undervalued - and ready to change that.
Inside: Rate benchmarks
Chapter 02 includes a tiered remuneration model across advisory, governance, speaking, and consulting roles — so you know what to ask for, and why.
Tier 01
Emerging contributor
Tier 02
Established practitioner
Tier 03
Specialist consultant
Full rate ranges and role-by-role guidance inside the guide.
After reading this guide
You will be able to:
Name a rate confidently — and explain why it's fair
Respond when organisations say they have no budget
Understand what fair compensation actually includes beyond the hourly rate
Know what to ask before accepting a governance or advisory role
Invoice professionally and protect your intellectual property
Understand how paid work interacts with income support payments
Build a rate card so you never have to think on your feet
Recognise when to walk away — and how to do it gracefully
Contents
What's inside
Lived Experience, Lived Expertise and Market Value
Lived experience and lived expertise are not the same thing. This chapter draws the distinction, explains why it matters for how you are paid, and names unpaid lived experience work as the structural problem it is.
Levels of Expertise and Rate Benchmarks
A tiered remuneration model for advisory sessions, workshops, governance roles, written contributions, speaking engagements and specialist consulting — with guidance on how to position your rate confidently.
Governance, Boards and Advisory Roles
Advisory groups, steering committees, boards, ministerial panels and research governance roles carry different responsibilities. This chapter explains what to consider before accepting a governance role, including preparation time, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, decision-making power and fair payment.
What Fair Compensation Actually Includes
Beyond the hourly rate: preparation time, emotional labour, travel, debrief, intellectual property, and the non-financial components you are entitled to ask for.
The "We Don't Have Budget" Conversation
How to respond when organisations say they can't pay. Scripts, strategies, and the option to decline — because every time someone works for free, it makes it easier for the next organisation to expect the same.
Navigating Centrelink and Income Reporting
A practical overview of the interaction between paid lived experience work and income support payments — including what questions to ask, who to contact, and how to understand your reporting obligations. General information only — seek advice from Services Australia or a financial counsellor for your specific situation.
How to Ask for What You're Worth
A four-step framework for negotiating payment: naming your rate first, scoping what's included, getting it in writing, and following up on late payments.
Emotional Labour Has a Cost
Sharing lived experience is not the same as sharing professional knowledge. How to factor emotional labour into your rate, your boundaries, and your decision about whether to participate at all.
Setting Up as a Sole Trader
An overview of getting an ABN, understanding your general tax obligations, and formalising your practice — so you can invoice professionally. General information only — seek advice from the ATO or a registered tax professional for your specific circumstances.
Invoicing, Contracts and Intellectual Property
What a professional invoice includes, when to use a letter of agreement, and what to look for in IP clauses before you sign anything.
Building Your Rate Card
A one-page document that sets out what you offer and what you charge — so you never have to think on your feet when someone asks what you cost.
When to Walk Away
Recognising the engagements that are not worth taking, the red flags to watch for before you say yes, and how to exit gracefully when something changes.
Building a Sustainable Practice
How to build a paid lived experience practice over time — capability statements, professional visibility, proposals, repeat clients, intellectual property, insurance, partnerships and sustainable boundaries.
Every time someone works for free, it makes it easier for the next organisation to expect the same. You deserve to be paid.
— Hayley Brown, Lived Impact
Audience
Who this is for
This guide is for you if...
You do lived experience work - paid or unpaid - and you're not sure what to charge
You've been asked to contribute for free, or for a token amount that didn't reflect the real value of your expertise
You want to negotiate payment but don't know how to start the conversation
You're on income support and worried about how getting paid will affect your payments
You're a peer worker, advocate, or lived experience consultant ready to be paid what you're worth
About the author
Hayley Brown
Hayley is a lived experience leader, consultant, and the founder of Lived Impact. She has worked across domestic and family violence, child protection, mental health, disability, and community services — both as a person with lived experience and as a systems-level strategist. She writes from both sides of the table.
Your expertise is worth paying for.
Written by someone who has navigated these conversations - and learned that asking for what you're worth is one of the most professional things you can do.
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Read freeGeneral information only. The content in this guide is intended as general information. It does not constitute legal, financial, tax, or professional advice. Please seek professional advice where appropriate.
USING THIS WITH CLIENTS OR TEAMS?
This guide is available for individual purchase, client-use licensing and organisational use.
Please do not purchase one copy and distribute it. For client packs, team access or program use, contact Lived Impact for licensing options.
View licensing optionsThis guide is licensed for individual use by the purchaser only.
You are welcome to use the ideas, prompts and reflection points in your own practice. However, the guide itself must not be copied, forwarded, uploaded, printed for others, shared with clients, or distributed across a team without an appropriate multi-user, client-use or organisational licence.
If you would like to use this guide with clients, groups, teams or programs, please contact Lived Impact for a multi-use licence. View licence options.
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