Hourly rate for Admin. Assistant

[TwoAndTwoEqualsChaos]

I have been out of the jobs' market for a while but have got to a certain stage of an interview process. One of the questions we have been asked is what we would expect our hourly rate to be. The role is freelance, we would bill the company for our time. It is private sector and I have mostly worked in the public sector. It is out of London but a city. It is a small PR firm and (mostly) would be remote working. Can anyone help?

I have also posted in Chat for traffic.

"Admin assistant" is a very wide term. The rate will depend on exactly what kind of work it is. If it's data entry, mailings, etc., then obviously a much lower rate than if it were a "PA" sort of role.

I tend to regard 50% over the equivalent hourly rate of an employed position as being reasonable to cover the additional costs of self employment, no holiday nor sick pay, no pension, etc.

So, if it were basic work, then maybe £10 as the minimum, but more like £20-£30 if it were higher level work.

Admin asst. roles in Essex are NMW mostly, unless there are additional specialist skills involved.

I know someone who is a Virtual Administrator and charges around £20 per hour. Hope that helps!

I do that part time and get between £15&20 p.h

I don't really understand why the admin assistant role is self-employed here. I hope it's not the company trying to avoid paying employment costs for you. I think that if you're freelance it should be because you want to be, and you want to be able to choose your hours and work for more than client, otherwise it's a 'false self-employment' i.e. you have one client who is actually like a boss.

Hourly rates for freelance should be higher than for paye employees surely because you'd have to pay your own tax wouldn't you?

Where I live basic admin (what taxguru calls data entry/mailings) pays 7 to 7.50. I have heard of some on minimum wage, but it's not common. Secretarial would probably be 16k and more (so around 8 to 8.50 an hour) and admin jobs with more responsibility could be 20k or more. I interviewed for a job paying 24-27k when I was working for 7.50 an hour so you see that there can be huge differences in pay. I live somewhere where wages are much lower than London, so if you live in London you need more specific advice for there.

Please check if I'm right that you would need to be paid more as self-employed though, that could be important!