useful freelance journo/PR/marketing etc freelance pay guide

[mrsbaldwin]

There's a very useful freelance pay rates ready reckoner here.
www.andrewbibby.com/reckoner.html

Some posters may have seen it before I imagine, but I hadn't.

Good work, Andrew Bibby!

£241 as a starting rate

I'm doing something wrong here.

One reason why this sheet is useful is that you can see at a glance how much money organisations are saving by outsourcing to freelancers!

I mean seriously, does anyone who would have been on a salary of £20k, and has a level of experience appropriate to that salary, charge £240 per day??

I have a LOT more experience than that, was on more than that in my last staffer job, and still charge less than that for virtually all my clients.

Interested to know how everyone else's freelance rates compare to your old salary vis a vis this table...

I charge around £240 a day but if I was working full time would want lot more than £20k.

I think this table is wrong. Doesn't explain why you should be adding a 30% mark up for being a freelancer. The whole point I always thought, especially in current climate, was to provide flexible expertise at a rate that was equivalent or maybe even lower than the costs they would face if they took someone on. Given that most creative agencies really struggling at the minute there is no way they would pay these rates. Disclaimer: am up north, may be different in London.

WingandaPrayer - I think the table is saying that a 'job' costs an employer 'x' ie advertised salary plus tax/NI, admin and overheads on top, and including sick pay, holiday all the extras. To outsource work costs firms less.

The table comes at things from the point of the freelancer, showing what kind of day rate would present an equivalent cost to the organisation as employing you.

It's not a survey of current market pay rates in the media industries.

So why is it useful - well, for one thing it calculates an average ceiling rate. So, at the top of the table, if you're freelancing in a role that might attract a salary of £60K the top of that market for freelance day rates might be £605. Any more than that and they may as well employ you.

I understand what the table means thank you.

It's still pointless.

£241 a day equates to £62k a year. That's three times the equivalent salary and twice the actual employment costs according to Mr Bibby. Who would seriously employ someone at that rate when they could have full time member of permanent staff for roughly half that cost.

Are you related to Andrew Bibby or his PR? Answering your own questions is a very PR thing to do.

Never met Mr Bibby or even heard of him before this week! Although from reading his website looks like he is a left wing kind of person (many of his publications are for trade unions etc).

Which is the clue really - his table shows how freelancing reduces firms' costs - and instead of looking at freelancing from the 'how low should you go with your day rates', says 'you could go this high'.

Sometimes people come on this thread asking about how they should calculate what rate to charge for a job. A lot of people who contribute to this thread work in media or marketing and things like that. So I stuck a link up here. If you have another/better link on how to price, why don't you add it?

PS And Mr Bibby if you are reading and would like to slip me a fiver for linking to your website that would be great

I mean topic not thread of course

I think that's very useful. Thank you MrsB.

It is useful.. up to a point.

Of course the fact that I cannot command £100k by working on a day rate is somewhat compensated for by the fact that I can work at home in my PJs, at 4 in the morning if I choose to get up at 4 in the afternoon, and can mumsnet plan my time however I want.

If I could persuade anyone that they should pay me those rates to employ me to be a member of their office team, working long hours, always available for meetings etc etc without having to pay my NI, computer/software/sick leave etc etc, then I would gladly give up said privileges, but I don't think anyone's going to buy it!

Also, and I think this is where the table falls down, I think the taxman would have something to say about that kind of arrangement.

Still, gives us all something to aim for.

wingandprayer, what do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Freelance marketing consultant for 8 years in a vague niche. Also work from bedroom
in inappropriate business wear and MN far too often. Hey ho. Survived this long and seem to be flourishing

That table doesn't show how it reduces costs though. Add it up. Times those day rates by 52 then by 5. His suggested hourly rates vastly out of sync with supposed normal employment rates.

Yes as freelancer would be unlikely to earn on that basis but if he wants to compare annual costs then this is appropriate. I don't therefore understand why this table appropriate.

Dear God, how many times can I use 'appropriate'. Sorry