This is NPR's Life Kit.

Today, we're talking about discounts.

I'm Andy Tagle, one of the producers of this show,

and no, I don't mean the kind of discount

that leaves you feeling victorious as you exit the mall

or the grocery store,

but rather, all the ways we discount the cost of time and labor

in the workplace, with other people and with ourselves.

If you're trying to break into a creative field,

if you're a freelancer, if you're a woman of color,

or perhaps all three, you probably already know what I mean.

It's commonplace these days. Borderline expected,

depending on where you are in your career,

to have to offer time and labor for free

or at deeply discounted rates in order to get work

and move up in the world.

Maybe someone has even fed you the line,

hey, we can't pay you,

but this will be great exposure.

The thing is,

exposure is not an except the form of currency at the bank.

I mean, principally, it's a mathematical problem.

...