Are recruitment agency fees excessive?

[NotAllThere]

They do not go back and ask more from the client. We are a service industry. We service the need of the client who is willing to pay X. The rest is between you and the agent.

Sometimes they do... back in 1997 I found that I was getting £450 a day and the agency £600. So I asked the agency for a rise at renewal - cheeky beggars got the client to pay £700 and my daily rate increased to £550. Oh well.

[IR35equalshateoflittleguy]

How do you know the client is paying £750 a day for you?
And does that include VAT?

Also, if you've been at a client for 5 years, you're not really a contractor, you're firmly inside IR35 and should be PAYE.

I started out 2 years outside doing a project, then switched to inside and since then been inside.

We had a new boss start and he was struggling to approve my timesheet on the one system and shared the screen, probably didn't realise that I shouldn't see that rate.

As for vat I used to get the vat when outside but now I am inside no vat.

[eek]

I started out 2 years outside doing a project, then switched to inside and since then been inside.

We had a new boss start and he was struggling to approve my timesheet on the one system and shared the screen, probably didn't realise that I shouldn't see that rate.

As for vat I used to get the vat when outside but now I am inside no vat.

Vat is something you collect on behalf of HMRC, it’s not your money and you really shouldn’t care about it.

[IR35equalshateoflittleguy]

Vat is something you collect on behalf of HMRC, it’s not your money and you really shouldn’t care about it.

I didn't bring up vat.

[eek]

I didn't bring up vat.

Um you did

As for vat I used to get the vat when outside but now I am inside no vat.

[WTFH]

Um you did

Actually, it was me, I asked if the £750 was inc vat or not.

They haven’t answered that one.

[CheeseSlice]

Hasn’t somebody said it already?
It really doesn’t matter what the agent gets, what matters is that you get what you think you are worth.
If you’re not happy just move or find a way to go direct.
Also check the market to find out the rate range for your skills.

[edison]

Hasn’t somebody said it already?
It really doesn’t matter what the agent gets, what matters is that you get what you think you are worth.
If you’re not happy just move or find a way to go direct.
Also check the market to find out the rate range for your skills.

The recruitment market is exactly that - a market, with buyers (hundreds or even thousands of agencies) and sellers (many thousands of contractors.) It's a very price driven market and whilst pricing to contractors isn't always transparent, there's enough info and data out there for contractors to be informed and make appropriate choices.

I was chatting to a recruiter over xmas drinks recently and he said his previous firm had doubled their commission rate from 15% to 30% for contractors in 2021. It's a slightly different model as that particular firm tends to supply small teams of very experienced contractors (associates) as part of consulting assignments where day rates are around £900-£1200 typically. I know several contractors who work for this recruiter and none are complaining about their pay or the margin.

[lecyclist]

The recruitment market is exactly that - a market, with buyers (hundreds or even thousands of agencies) and sellers (many thousands of contractors.)

Agree. And the stock market metaphor of a whale buying or dumping large quantities of shares is also applicable here. Most of us will have experienced regional rate fluctuations when a large corp. demands 100 contractors for a major programme of work and pays above the average rate. A new temporary price support level is introduced. This can work against contractors also - if the client has 100 generic programmers on the same rate, no one is getting an increase. And it would be likely in this case that the client's rate strongly influences the support level/ and rate ceiling in that sector / geographic region.

[Eirikur]

I started out 2 years outside doing a project, then switched to inside and since then been inside.
.

OMG Why isn't NLUK saying anything?