We have been notified by other Australian trading systems that our agreed hourly rate of 20 Operas an hour is causing exchange rate problems with other Australian systems.

Each difference LETS group has it’s own way of valuing trades. Some operate in a totally free-market style, some have suggested minimum and maximum rates per hour, others are time-banks which charge 60 units per hour.

Tim Jenkin has done a good job of calculating exchange rates between these sytems, but Sydney LETS is operating a little differently and has wound up being out of whack. In Sydney LETS we value our time equally, and when the system was started in 2003 members agreed to trade at 20 Operas per hour. At the time that was probably close to the average Australian wage, but over time the average Australia wage has increased.

Tim Jenkin advised us to increase our hourly rate to 25 Operas an hour to keep the price of services even with goods, and to ensure a fair deal when we trade with members in other Australian LETS groups.

In June 2011, Sydney & Illawarra LETS voted to increase our hourly rate to 25 Operas per hour from July 1st 2012.

Annette Loudon
SYCE0176