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Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

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Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#141

Post by Silhouette »

butler14 wrote: post #23
samwillis wrote: post #5

I would be particularly interested in hearing what "Full Stack Developers" charge in the UK. I recently started doing freelance/contract work but I'm not really sure what others similar to me change. (I'm particularly experienced (15 years) in Python/Django, JS/Vue, UI/UX)

I run a small digital agency, and agree with the £400-£600 a day range. You can obviously expect more premium £700-£1,000 day rates if you're working for banks or big four accounting firms, or if you have very specific or highly demanded skills (e.g. React)

If you know places that are still routinely offering £700+ just for a decent React dev I know several people who'd appreciate pointers. It's certainly an in demand skill but also one that a lot of contractors have now and the UK market isn't what it used to be thanks to all the IR35 mess and lots of formerly big clients shutting down their contracting (or, usually even worse, forcing everyone under umbrellas).

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#142

Post by mod »

atemerev wrote: post #44

Depends on the customer. The largest rate I used to take was $500/hour (for a 10 hours project, so it haven’t made me a millionaire). The smallest is of course free, but the actual commercial smallest was probably $80/hour (for a long-term project). (I live in Switzerland, which is quite expensive). It goes without saying that there are times when I don’t have any projects in the pipeline, so I have to spend some tim…

What kinds of things are you doing to find clients?

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#143

Post by Escapado »

dijit wrote: post #125
Escapado wrote: post #111

I am located in germany, work as a fullstack dev with frontend focus (react/vue). I have about 6 years of total dev experience[1]. For full time projects I charge 90-100€/h (+19% VAT) and I exclusively take on remote projects. When I started out at as a freelancer at the beginning of 2020 my rate was 80€/h. If I was approached with short term projects(as in less than 160h of work) I would charge significantly more bu…

it's probably true that you're earning more; but you should know that the amount seen on the balance sheet isn't the whole truth. In fact, I'm quite sure you know, but for those reading: 80-100eur/h on a contract is roughly equivalent to 50-60eur/h salaried; due to social contributions, paid vacation (1.12th of your salary), pension contributions and other benefits relating to insurance in the even the business goes…

You are not wrong that they are not the same but the difference is smaller than you think. Let's run the numbers:

Last year I worked for 210 days and I made 143.480€ (=85€/h) after deducting the 19% VAT. I paid 10.740€ for health insurance (which is capped) and 15.720€ for the pension fund (which I don't have to do but choose to do and this is the same rate an employer/employee would pay given that income) leaving me with 117.020€ taxable income. The income tax then is 117.020€ * 0.42 - 9.136€ = 40.012€ and 2.200€ Soli, leaving me with 74.808€ net income.

When you are employed then your employer has to pay half of your health insurance and pension fund so to have a net income of 74.808€ you "only" need to make 131.940€ per year or about 78€/h all things equal. So we are talking about a 10% difference. Now you could argue that an FTE would not work for 210 days but 200 or 190 days which would add another 5-10% difference but it would still be off from your original 33%.

To put this into perspective: I have been offered full time employment at almost every company I have worked for as a freelancer so far and the by far highest offer I got was 93.000€/year which is around 54.600€ net income - or about 20.000€ less net than I make right now. That is 2/3 of the average FTE income in germany.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#144

Post by pdonis »

rolisz wrote: post #103
biztos wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I missing something, or do you not have any vacation?

Paid vacation still counts towards your "work hours", because your employer pays for them.

But if you're a contractor, you don't have an employer, so you have to divide the total amount you want to make in a year by the actual hours you expect to work, which won't include time off, since your clients won't be paying you for time off.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#145

Post by martin_a »

k__ wrote: post #63
martin_a wrote: post #51

I'm fixing some WordPress websites on the side for 60 Euro/hour for clients from earlier days. For new clients I'd look into 90 Euro/hour. Your work is much more complex though, your rate should therefore be higher, I think, especially if this is your main job. Would it make sense for you to switch to another billing model, like "per module" or does billing per hour work fine for you? edit: Based in Germany

In my experience German companies pay half or third of what US companies pay.

Yes, because lots of expenses are already paid by the employer, so no need to ramp up the loan.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#146

Post by codethief »

TbobbyZ wrote: post #36
tdehnel wrote: post #28

It used to be $225/hr. But I don’t have an hourly rate anymore and I basically never will. You need to understand that as a contractor clients value more than just your time and the work you do. They value flexibility in staffing, getting an outsider’s opinion, their own time, working with a true expert, and making progress on projects which they can show off to their boss. That’s why for all my work I scope project…

When should I have a monthly retainer? How do I sell it to my client?

You basically reserve time for them. If they don't pay the retainer, they won't have any guarantee that you'll have time for them when they need you.

> When should I have a monthly retainer?

It provides you with a certain amount of income safety, allows you to schedule your time better ahead of time and also prevents you from trying to make time for too many clients at once. (Imagine if multiple clients suddenly have an emergency and ask for your help.)

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#147

Post by biztos »

Willamin wrote: post #112
biztos wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> your salary (backed out to hourly) Is there a standard rule of thumb for "hours worked in a year" at companies? Off the top of my head I come up with ~ 1700 for my last salaried job: 365 - 104 (weekends) - 32 (vacation) - 10 (holidays) - 5 (sick) = 214 days or 1712 hours @8/d. Also I think for "your salary" you should use your total compensation but maybe that's what you meant.

The rule of thumb estimation number I've always heard for calculating a salaried job's hourly rate is 2080: 365 / 7 ≈ 52 (weeks) * 5 (work days per week) * 8 (hours per day) = 2080 hours per year Given that very estimated number, vacation, holidays, and sick time all count as extra benefit. One convenient aspect of this number is that if you go ahead and factor in 2 weeks of PTO/holidays/sick days, then the number of…

This is very convenient, but it seems to ignore (ergo lose) the value of the rest of the time off.

How do you account for the extra days, in my example it would be almost 300 hours' worth of value I get in addition to the salary?

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#148

Post by atemerev »

mod wrote: post #142
atemerev wrote: post #44

Depends on the customer. The largest rate I used to take was $500/hour (for a 10 hours project, so it haven’t made me a millionaire). The smallest is of course free, but the actual commercial smallest was probably $80/hour (for a long-term project). (I live in Switzerland, which is quite expensive). It goes without saying that there are times when I don’t have any projects in the pipeline, so I have to spend some tim…

What kinds of things are you doing to find clients?

Asking my existing clients for references, profile communities (the industry I work in is small enough), LinkedIn.
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