Contractor PM rates

[Phillwin]

Hi - I'm not contracting atm but I still get a lot of recruiters contacting me with PM roles and I've noticed in the last 6 months that rates have dropped consistently below £400/day. Is everyone finding this? Is this acceptable? Is it a case that people are selling themselves short? This is not a good rate imo.

[moneymoney]

probably depends where you are and in the industry

in London working in finance, getting £500+ still for PM role

[filthy1980]

like every role it depends on skills / experience and client expectations

main problem with PM perceptions is that the title has become diluted with seemingly every tom dick and harry calling themselves a PM even if they've only managed the co-ordination of a workstream or two

rates wise i've seen variations from the 250 p/d upto 550 p/d, this is midlands based roles

i'd say around 400 p/d is probably about fair for a "decent" PM in most parts

[northernladuk]

It's not and it's been driven down by every man and his dog jumping in because they are all starry eyed about the money and don't realise what contracting really involves. They then spend months on the bench after their first gig and either go back permie or struggle contracting. Sadly those that do know what they are doing are also affected due to the rate drop and attitude to contractors due to the previous guy not handling it properly....

And breath.....

[LondonManc]

Depends how much you're managing?

£400/day in Manchester for basic project (rather than programme) management is about right. It's just glorified admin unless you're in with the Agile crowd, at which point, "it's a mindset, you know".

[oracleslave]

Is this acceptable? This is not a good rate imo.

It's an outrage - I'd write to your MP.

In my view your question is nowhere near specific enough. A PM in what area of IT, doing what, with what budget, with what areas of responsibility, with how big a team, with how many years of experience etc etc. The variables are huge in ascertaining the rate.

Personally - rates to me in London look bigger than ever, particularly if you have Oracle Fusion, large-scale business transformation experience as well as any Oracle Cloud, PAAS, IAAS experience but that's obviously not relevant for the majority.

Rethink the question.

[WTFH]

Two things affect rate:
Experience and Supply & Demand

When someone tells you that they earn x there are so many other factors that they aren't telling you. So the questions you need to ask yourself are:
1. What do I need to make per day to break even?
2. What experience do I have?
3. What war chest do I have?

If you've got a big enough war chest, you can turn down work until someone is prepared to pay you what you think you are worth. If after several years, maybe you need to re-evaluate your worth.
Or you might take a contract which is short term but well paid, compared to a longer term one at a lower rate.

But you ask the question "is this acceptable?", sorry is what acceptable in what way to what person for what reason?

[northernladuk]

I don't think experience affects rate in the way newbies probably think it does. Very rarely will the client take on a less experienced guy at a lower rate. They have a requirement to fulfill and you either fit or you don't. It won't be matched again your level of experience.
It does however set a level at which gig's you can go for. I. E. The ones with thenlower advertised rates.

If you don't have much experience and are 300 per day contractor you are wasting your time going for a 500 a day gig. They won't drop that to match the rate Vs skill. They will just a get 500 a day contractor in.

[WTFH]

NLUK, you put that better than I did - yes, experience counts for little in terms of the rate, but your experience of past contracts tells you how much you have got in the past.

[clearedforlanding]

How long is a piece of string?

There is a very wide gap on rates between a PM who is managing a desktop roll-out and a PM who is transforming an incumbent nationalised mobile operator into a privatised business including a vendor financed $1.5B infrastructure upgrade.

PM is about as granular a term as 'driver'.

A London bus driver does not charge the same as Vettel. (Tube drivers I understand might).