Hourly to Day Rate

[MaryPoppins]

If the permie salary is 34K then double it. That's your starting point... do contractors actually work for less than 300 a day anyway? Don't get me wrong, I'd never go that low, but still I've heard there's a crunch on so maybe it's a starting point ...

Of course they do, comments like this are probably why most people think we're a bunch of t*ssers.

[Zippy]

There appears to be no benefit to the OP in moving to a day rate, if he is working 50+ hours a week (assuming they expect him to keep this up).
(50 * 18)/5 = 180 per day
If they only want to pay out £34k then work out how many hours you can afford to do for that. It's about 38 weeks out of the year.

[NotAllThere]

If I'm doing a day rate, I simply go for 10x hourly rate. I will charge that whether I work 1 hour or 24 hours. It tends to level out.

I remember a permie I used to work with. He told me he used to work late in the evening, although he was salaried, rather than paid by the hour. One night the security guard chatted with him, and asked him how many hours he worked a week. Then he said "well, take your salary, and tell me what your hourly rate is". When the permie did this, the security guard said - "I earn more than you". From that time on the permie worked normal hours.

[Weltchy]

Hrm,

Surely if the OP has quoted his hourly rate at £18 an hour, and stated that the agency is taking a 40% cut, that means the agency were charging him out at £30 an hour. Therefore, as the client is willing to pay upto said amount, the OP would be well within his rights to ask for a daily amount upto £240 a day (£30 * 8).

In fact, since the OP stated a 10 hour working day, that would mean a maximum rate of £300 a day. Now, as most clients make the switch to direct to save money, I suspect the client would be happy for anything around £200-£250 a day. Using these numbers, you should be able to negotiate a good daily rate.

[d000hg]

If the permie salary is 34K then double it. That's your starting point... do contractors actually work for less than 300 a day anyway? Don't get me wrong, I'd never go that low, but still I've heard there's a crunch on so maybe it's a starting point ...

You don't go outside London much do you?

Of course they do, comments like this are probably why most people think we're a bunch of t*ssers.

Indeed.

If I'm doing a day rate, I simply go for 10x hourly rate. I will charge that whether I work 1 hour or 24 hours. It tends to level out.

X10, is quite high. If your client heard this wouldn't they expect you working long days?

[tommyo]

Just to clarify - I don't work in IT... am in Finance. Couldnt find a Finance chat room.

Unfortunately, they're geting rid of all the contractors here - decided to ask for £200/day and see how much lower they go.

Thanks for your help though.