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

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.