Rate increase - how do I achieve it?

[tarbera]

yes indeed

In my London experience it is not far from the mark. £800-£1200+ for an established consultancy.

Agents of course are on a much lower percentage markup.

Yes for onshore people (offshore are 1/3 of that) and end contractor gets about 40%

The agency contractors are rate plus 5%

[DirtyDog]

Is there really that much of a mark-up by a consultancy as opposed to an agency? In my experience, I'd say not.

Yes. My last consultancy role, I was billed out to the client at a discounted rate to £1500 a day. After I left, the consultancy wanted to add me onto their retained contractor list, with a rate of about £450.

[edison]

Is there really that much of a mark-up by a consultancy as opposed to an agency? In my experience, I'd say not.

In my experience there is, especially if you are a permie at a consultancy. Back in the late 90s when I first started at one of the big consultancies, I was on about £30k salary and factoring in the rest of my package like pension, car allowance, bonus etc plus employer NI etc, I can't have cost my employer more than £65-70k at a rough guess. In my last year there I earned around £250k in fees. You can work out the markup there in the hundreds of percent! To give my employer some credit though, they did invest heavily in my training, something like 40 days over two years.

[KentPhilip]

My issue with the end client is that the tech is very poor (1997 standard but there's been talk of newer tech coming in)

Forget the rate rise, and instead get a better contract. Having old carp technology on your CV is not going to help matters unless it is niche or there is growing legacy demand for those skills.

"talk" of new technology means nothing.

[tarbera]

Really

Forget the rate rise, and instead get a better contract. Having old carp technology on your CV is not going to help matters unless it is niche or there is growing legacy demand for those skills.

"talk" of new technology means nothing.

we have a 68 year old on £1000+ a day here doing COBOL, ohh how he laughs at the Java kids, he comes to the scrum meetings and asked yesterday'

'Rather than spending all your time fixing bugs, why not code it properly' and the Stats are.

COBOL lines of code delivered in last 3 months = 13000 (1 old coffin dodger)
JAVE Code = 3200 (12 pair programmers from far away shores)

Production issues caused - Java (11) COBOL (0)

The old boy always brings his 'Java for dummies' book to the meeting to wind the others up.

[Scrag Meister]

My year long Java development contract ends at the end of April. I have been told a 6 month extension is on the cards. My client is with a consultancy that has placed me one of their client sites (direct, no agent).

A colleague got an extension but his rate increase request was turned down (they claimed that my colleague was already on market rates).

I would like to know how to go about getting a rate rise. Are rises normal with extensions? I would like the extension and would be happy to take it at the same rate but would obviously like more.

So, how to I play it when I get the inevitable rate increase refusal. I know the my client is desperate to keep me because basically they are body-shopping me to the end client.

My issue with the end client is that the tech is very poor (1997 standard but there's been talk of newer tech coming in) and I have already let me feelings regarding not learning much known to my client. So they know I could take or leave the place.

How do I go about it and is a rate increase likely?

I've read this but would like contractor opinion.
Contract rate negotiation: How to negotiate a rate rise for IT contractors :: Contractor UK

Firstly you need to be productive, professional, valued etc...
Secondly you have to ask for it.
Third you have to be realistic

[SussexSeagull]

we have a 68 year old on £1000+ a day here doing COBOL, ohh how he laughs at the Java kids, he comes to the scrum meetings and asked yesterday'

'Rather than spending all your time fixing bugs, why not code it properly' and the Stats are.

COBOL lines of code delivered in last 3 months = 13000 (1 old coffin dodger)
JAVE Code = 3200 (12 pair programmers from far away shores)

Production issues caused - Java (11) COBOL (0)

The old boy always brings his 'Java for dummies' book to the meeting to wind the others up.

For all the 'advances' in technologies and methodologies, I maintain delivery time and quality has gone backwards in my 15 years in the industry.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

[OwlHoot]

We have a 68 year old on £1000+ a day here doing COBOL, ohh how he laughs at the Java kids, he comes to the scrum meetings and asked yesterday'

'Rather than spending all your time fixing bugs, why not code it properly' and the Stats are.

COBOL lines of code delivered in last 3 months = 13000 (1 old coffin dodger)
JAVE Code = 3200 (12 pair programmers from far away shores)

Production issues caused - Java (11) COBOL (0)

The old boy always brings his 'Java for dummies' book to the meeting to wind the others up.

Hehe - Nice story, although 13000 lines of interminably long-winded horrible Cobol are probably equivalent to about fewer than 3000 lines of Java. (Mind you, for £1000 a day I could probably be persuaded to go back to Cobol! )

[heyya99]

Thanks for all the replies and apologies for my late response.

My rate is £400 for London based gig. I've since found out my consultancy charges £605 for me.

Another colleague's rate went from 430 to 480. He said it wasn't easy getting it and was told at one point that there would need to be a parting if he didn't sign. He asked for 500.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Does the consultancy name start with an 's' ? Just wondering if you're someone I used to work with.