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

[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?