Rate Increase - how to go about getting one...

[Wanderer]

Think about WHY you are worth the rise.

Alternatively, ask the client why the agency is taking £100/day for doing bugger all. The agent's made their money for recruiting you, now they can cut their margin to a minimum. Let's say the client cuts their payment to the agency to £375 and the agency ups your pay to £350. Job done, everybody is happy.

[TykeMerc]

sound advice, thank you

TAV hasn't given sound advice from a contractors perspective, he's simply sold you the agents line.

If you know what the agency cut is then you have significant ammunition to tackle the agency for them to reduce their cut and increase yours. Agents hate it when contractors find out what rate others are on and really hate it when you find out what their take is from the contract.
Depending on what your relationship is with the client management I'd tell them that you're certainly interested in the extension, but you're uncomfortable with certain parts of the agency terms and conditions so you will be resolving those differences.
I'd then tackle the agency, lead with wanting an increase to £375/day, when the agent says that the client won't agree to pay more (they might try the "I'll ask the client" line to stall a day or so) you can respond with the approach that the agency is able to fund the increase from their margin, if the agent responds the margin isn't big (they often lie that it's 25% of what it actually is) then you can always respond with the info that you're well aware of what you're being charged at to the client and their recruitment costs will have been well covered already. Settle at £350/day or more if you're willing to play hardball.

[LittleLady]

TAV hasn't given sound advice from a contractors perspective, he's simply sold you the agents line.

Told you I was new to this!

[SimonMac]

Alternatively, ask the client why the agency is taking £100/day for doing bugger all. The agent's made their money for recruiting you, now they can cut their margin to a minimum. Let's say the client cuts their payment to the agency to £375 and the agency ups your pay to £350. Job done, everybody is happy.

I would imagine the Agent would be pretty pissed that they are being screwed by both sides

[The Agents View]

Seriously TAV, f u c k off with this s h i t!

The contractor is the one who has managed to get the extension, not you. Your cut up front for the original term of the contract is fine, but there is nothing more you do to get the extension.

Thank you for your considered and mature reply.

The fact is, that the OP is negotiating with an agent. The agent holds ALL the cards here. They have the contract in hand, you have a restriction clause in your contract - if you play hardball with us, there are PLENTY of people on the bench.

Whether it's right or wrong for the above details to be true, is not the discussion here - the question was "how do I go about getting a rate increase" - I've detailed how the OP should go about doing this.

Now if you've quite finished.

[The Agents View]

TAV hasn't given sound advice from a contractors perspective, he's simply sold you the agents line.

If you know what the agency cut is then you have significant ammunition to tackle the agency for them to reduce their cut and increase yours. Agents hate it when contractors find out what rate others are on and really hate it when you find out what their take is from the contract.
Depending on what your relationship is with the client management I'd tell them that you're certainly interested in the extension, but you're uncomfortable with certain parts of the agency terms and conditions so you will be resolving those differences.
I'd then tackle the agency, lead with wanting an increase to £375/day, when the agent says that the client won't agree to pay more (they might try the "I'll ask the client" line to stall a day or so) you can respond with the approach that the agency is able to fund the increase from their margin, if the agent responds the margin isn't big (they often lie that it's 25% of what it actually is) then you can always respond with the info that you're well aware of what you're being charged at to the client and their recruitment costs will have been well covered already. Settle at £350/day or more if you're willing to play hardball.

This is complete rubbish.

I couldn't care less if you know what my margin is - it's my agreement, and you are my cost - you agreed to perform a service for a price, and I've sold that service on. I would simply ignore your request, and tell you to either extend the contract, or leave.

As for "the recruitment cost has been covered". I'm not here to "cover recruitment costs" - I'm here to make a profit - as much profit as I can.

Feel free to take the approach that every other contractor who doesn't get a rate increase takes - but don't be surprised to find that you don't get it.

[jmo21]

The fact is, that the OP is negotiating with an agent. The agent holds ALL the cards here. They have the contract in hand, you have a restriction clause in your contract - if you play hardball with us, there are PLENTY of people on the bench.

Again, a bullsh!t line.

While of course correct from a contract point of view, you'll only end up pissing off the end client if they want to keep the contractor.

Feeding these lines to the newbie is not going to get past the more seasoned contractors on here.

[TykeMerc]

As jmo21 said, TAV is talking utter bollocks.

The contractor has a great deal of leverage as the client isn't looking for some anonymous contract resource, but wants to extend the relationship with an encumbent contractor who's up to speed with the work, organisation, staff and processes.
To replace a satisfactory contractor who's happy to stay will cost the agency effort and money and may damage their relationship with the client especially if the client is made aware that it's the agency preventing the contractor extending.