What's my hourly rate?

[ciphergoth]

Just got an email. "I'm after a Perl programmer - what's your hourly rate?"

I haven't the faintest idea.

If you work it out from my gross salary, you get £18.82, but is that the right amount to charge? I have never charged an hourly rate before, but I would like to quote something reasonably plausible. Eek, that's like 31p a minute - I go to spend a penny, and get paid about 62p for it. That sounds OK. But I'd like to hear that confirmed from someone who's done contract work before.

I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who knows...

Update: many thanks for the many helpful answers!

Comments

[mrph.livejournal.com]

We've been paying people in a variety of jobs (tech authors, programmers of various types) ?25 per hour. I don't know quite how appropriate that is to your skills & region, but I'd be very surprised if that wasn't a reasonable amount to ask for. Anything under ?20 seems a bit low to me.

Bear in mind that there usually seems to be a mark-up in "per hour" rates vs gross salary, to compensate for lack of job security on short/medium term contract work - so a direct calculated rate is (probably) going to come out a little low.

Then again, I can't claim my experiences are typical, or that I know the field well, so...

[alienspacebat.livejournal.com]

Well my dad gets ?600 a day as a biologist on contract work but that's the wrong industry. Most web designers (although they would kill me for calling it that - they call it art) I know get between ?30 and ?60 per hour but generally the low side of that is a 'friends' rate for people they enjoy working with and projects that will enhance their portfolio. You want to ask yourself what other benefits the job brings such as who does the code belong to, and can I use this on my cv / in a portfolio? Then I would go for somewhere between the ?30 to ?60 mark. Don't forget perceived value. People want expensive things because they think price brings quality. Look cheap and you might not get the work, too expensive and they wont be able to afford you.

Just how much do you think you are worth?

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

?450 a day was an average software consultant rate circa 1994, if that helps.

My sole experience

[aegidian]

Several years ago - when I took a Java contract and after consultation with the bloke who got me the gig (a Sun qualified chap called Sasha), I charged out at ?30 an hour. Given inflation and stuff I'd guesstimate ?40-?60 an hour.

HTH

[akicif.livejournal.com]

The people I've seen who I can most directly compare to your sort of stuff[1] - java hackers and clever database types, tend to be on 80-100 an hour, and this is by no means the top end -- remember, ALL your expenses (tax, BOTH lots of NI, any health and pension stuff) come out of that...

[1] That's clever perl stuff, not run of the mill stuff, yes?

[lovingboth]

Around three times whatever your hourly pay would be.

our contract programmers

[hbergeronx.livejournal.com]

are let out to our end customers at ?1000/day, or ?125/hr. Project management and technical consulting is ?800/day, or ?100/hr. It has to be at least two times your gross salary typically because of benefits/pension for breakeven.

Rates

[giolla.livejournal.com]

We used to charge 1000+ ukp plus expenses as a daily rate, if you're doing hourly work you may want to charge a bit more. You have to allow for taxes and things like liability insurance after all.

Is this to an agent, or direct to client ?

[kitty-goth.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind the market price for contract work is now shit. Perl has also been evaluated as the 81st most-sought after skill (down from 6th this time last year) according to some survey I got sent.

I'd say 35-50/hour if you're going through an agent, +20-50% if not.

Re: Is this to an agent, or direct to client ?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's an agent. I quoted GBP 45 /hr.

I think the market price for all of my skills is now shit, but will get better, so I'm going for contract work partly because I'd rather get paid shit for dull work for three months than for two years.
Thanks!