Contracting issue, client trying to treat me like an employee and to pay me less than

[tarbera]

170 a day puts you on a low permie wage

Most of the people you describe I wouldn't class as contractors that should be running their own companies.

170 a day puts you on a low permie wage with the client also avoiding emp NI. They are being exploited I would say. N othing wroinf with calling that out.

The Average Professional IT Freelancer rate in the UK is £8.56/hour so £170 day is Fantastic

[uk contractor]

OP start looking for another contract today. If the measly difference was an issue to the client (I know you say they agreed more now but even £3K per month is not great unless your in your early 20s) then ruffling feathers about meetings is going to trigger the client finding a replacement for you behind your back sooner or later they will view you as obstructive & not a yes person.


Either take the meetings carry on billing keep your head down & look elsewhere or turn it around somehow. But already the client has probably made notes on you being a troublemaker (even if your not). I once had an issue with an Investment Banking client. The line manager wanted me to work unsocial hours all weekend outside my contract as his perms refused to do the work unpaid. I politely explained to him the agent had promised me x2 daily rate for weekend work & the line manager did not like this one little bit as I also told him the agency had on my contract no out of hours work without prior in writing permission from the agency!


Agency did not bother mentioning this to the end client so the manager was very upset as he thought I was being awkward to screw more money out of him when I was just having the discussion the agent bottled about out of hour rates! Anyway, only reason I mention this is that after that even though I did the out of hours work & the end client even paid me more than he needed to he also flagged me internally as someone who was awkward (even though I was just talking about what the contract stated in writing) so 12 months after the contract ended the end client had another big project but as he had flagged me as someone who was awkward he used another agency & another contractor instead of coming back to me all because I stood up for my contractual rights & had the talk with him the account manager agent (who had by then left) did not want to have!!


Its not even about right or wrong its all about perception & when your a contractor perception is everything to the end client they expect the unreasonable most of the time as your just a balance sheet resource to many of them like a photocopier, printer, or any other office tool you care to mention!

[radish2008]

The Average Professional IT Freelancer rate in the UK is £8.56/hour so £170 day is Fantastic

That can't be right. I can't work out if you're being sarcastic ...

[northernladuk]

The Average Professional IT Freelancer rate in the UK is £8.56/hour so £170 day is Fantastic

Where did you get that from? Seems a bit hard to believe.

All I can find is a calculator on the Crunch site which says otherwise
https://www.crunch.co.uk/knowledge/day-rate-calculator/

[tarbera]

Real Numbers

That can't be right. I can't work out if you're being sarcastic ...

http://www.crse.co.uk/sites/default/...ployment_0.pdf

page 21 (average of the 2 rates stated for IT Professionals)

[cojak]

That can't be right. I can't work out if you're being sarcastic ...

Travers is quite right about this - I looked at freelance rates when I had a friend swoon over £180 pd a little while ago.

I was staggered at the low rates.

[uk contractor]

Where did you get that from? Seems a bit hard to believe.

All I can find is a calculator on the Crunch site which says otherwise
https://www.crunch.co.uk/knowledge/day-rate-calculator/

In London believe it due to Tier 2 vista abuse & unlimited EU nationals labour pool willing to work for those rates. Unless its a niche skillset many IT disciplines have dropped through the floor in the last few years. Until IT contractors need to find a new role its hard to believe but I know several people who came out of roles recently & have found rates are less than half of what they used to achieve & even then the competition is massive due to how easy it is for foreign IT workers to get these roles without any proper checks.

[billybiro]

Sounds like they wanted a temp not a contractor. Did you get your contract reviewed at all?

When all's said and done and you've stripped away the layers of pretence, don't all clients really want this?

[radish2008]

Agency did not bother mentioning this to the end client so the manager was very upset as he thought I was being awkward to screw more money out of him

Why wasn't this in your contract ?

[northernladuk]

When all's said and done and you've stripped away the layers of pretence, don't all clients really want this?

Yeah I guess they want someone temporary so yes. I think there has to be some distinction between a highly skilled professional and the Office Angels type thing.

Bit like the difference between who earns a salary and who earns a wage. Kind of the same thing but different.