How do you decide/negotiate a "day" rate when freelancing?

[OrchardDweller]

I've been working from home part time for a while now and charge out what I do by the hour which works out well but it can be quite ad hoc. I've been asked to go in-house for a business three days a week and we seem to be dancing round how much the day rate will be as no one will go first!

So if I need to grasp the nettle and start the conversation how should I work the figure out .... what this role would be full time and then divide it by the hours, etc. However, I won't be paid when I'm not there and the company won't have to pay other costs on top of this (NI, pension, etc). I don't want to completely price myself out of the market nor do I want to undercharge. It's quite an usual job opportunity so there's not much to compare it to. What I suppose I'd really like to know is how much extra does a business have to pay on top on someone's salary?

Help!

A lot depends - i.e. are your using their equipment or providing your own? Are they providing you with any training or other support?

If you're just supplying yourself and they're providing the facilities, so it's just labour only, then I'd say anywhere between 25-50% more than an employed wage per hour would be the right ball park.

If you're providing your own equipment and other facilities, training, support, materials, etc., then you could be a lot higher, maybe up to double the employed wage.

Thank you ! It would just be me - I don't have to supply anything else ...

If you know what the salary would be you can calculate the extra costs that an employer would pay, and then divide by the number of working days (allowing for holiday etc)

So, it might be 20k plus 20% NI and pension = 24k. Then divide by 230 (260 days less 30 days holiday). = £105 per day.

No to £105 a day! You need to factor in the fact that you won't get hols, pension, sick pay etc. It's at least a third on top of the salary and even then there's very few charge less than £250 a day. What do you specialise in?

All depends on what industry you are in.

eg I work in PR and my day rate is 500 gbp a day. This is benchmarked against agencies and based on the fact I have 20 years experience. What do you do exactly?

Most freelancer techie people we know seem to charge £200-£500/day.
Tradesman not a heck of a lot less, really!