Increasing rate for working/staying away from home

[unixman]

For me, it hasn't been a case of "having the day rate increased". I have looked for and obtained lower paying local contracts, and higher paying remote ones. And I have given up a higher paying remote contract to take a lower paying local one.

Once I got a very high paying local contract, that was the exception. In the heady days of 2007, just before the...

[LondonManc]

For me, it hasn't been a case of "having the day rate increased". I have looked for and obtained lower paying local contracts, and higher paying remote ones. And I have given up a higher paying remote contract to take a lower paying local one.

Once I got a very high paying local contract, that was the exception. In the heady days of 2007, just before the...

I think the OP means asking for more.

I think of it as, what would be the minimum I'd work there for, add £100/day and see if they negotiate down.

[MicrosoftBob]

What you can do is negotiate some home working so say WFH friday would mean just 3 nights in a B&B or hotel and would at least have more chance of getting client approval as it costs them nothing

[ceebeepps]

I would never judge a rate based on whether i can commute daily or stay away from home, I base it on a) the role b) the location (not in relation to me) and c) the market.

[Glencky]

Really interesting thread, because coming to it this late and reading the responses so far, it strikes me that all of these are different ways of saying the same thing. Surely when one goes into a contract negotiation one is considering all relevant factors. These include most obviously, what the going rate is in the location, how well experienced you are for the role and therefore how much you can reasonably expect to be paid more than/ less than the going rate; how desirable a client it is (some clients look good on CVs and can afford to pay less as a result...) etc etc. In this case, it's an unusual client that would consciously pay you more because you happen to live further away, just as they wouldn't for permies. But some do, mainly because some just don't see it in quite the commercial way.

In my own case, there's plenty of work in the M4 corridor within an hour's commute for me, so if I was to go outside of that it'd have to be worth it. Whether it's worth it depends on the rate they're prepared to pay for me, yes - but also on how interesting the role is, who it's for, etc etc. Whether any role is attractive or not depends on the sometimes complicated interplay of factors and of course how desperate you are for the income!

But positioning-wise, I wouldn't try and explicitly negotiate a higher rate due to travel costs, but I would go in with a higher start point to cover them. Any sensible client will know what you're doing anyway, and it just comes down to - how much do they want / need you?