Average Day Rate

[d000hg]

Incidently what rate increase should one aim for when working in London? My thinking is you need at least another £150/day to make up for expenses (at around £75/day) and the torture of living in London (I guess torture is worth more than £75/day though).

I eyeballed it at £100/day to live in London or slightly more, renting an apartment and a weekly train and not going out to wine bars. The "PITA factor" depends on the person, and probably should be the same for any role you work away from home apart from extreme cases like Bahamas, Libya, etc.

[SueEllen]

Incidently what rate increase should one aim for when working in London? My thinking is you need at least another £150/day to make up for expenses (at around £75/day) and the torture of living in London (I guess torture is worth more than £75/day though).

It depends on your expenses.

Remember there are some of us who live in London and the SE so only have to pay for the commute by train or tube.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Day rate isn't the indicator but profit per day is.

I.e. a £600 day rate is worse than £450 if you're spending ~£200 a day on hotels and the weekly commute.

Incidently what rate increase should one aim for when working in London? My thinking is you need at least another £150/day to make up for expenses (at around £75/day) and the torture of living in London (I guess torture is worth more than £75/day though).

[Sockpuppet]

Day rate isn't the indicator but profit per day is.

I.e. a £600 day rate is worse than £450 if you're spending ~£200 a day on hotels and the weekly commute.

[MarillionFan]

What is the point of such a generic question which doesn't take in to count a whole host of variables? Just a stupid question. What do you expect to get out from the answer? Compare it to your rate? Thats like comparing apples and tractors.

What type of apples and what type of tractors?

Oh. And where are they based?

[northernladuk]

What is the point of such a generic question which doesn't take in to count a whole host of variables? Just a stupid question. What do you expect to get out from the answer? Compare it to your rate? Thats like comparing apples and tractors.

[Fred Bloggs]

The last few years I have averaged about £320 a day which is typical for NW and NE England where I have mostly worked. The last year I have been working in Surrey @ £630.

[ChimpMaster]

To give you a helpful answer.

Where are i am (blue chip, 50 miles out of london) majority of contracts are between 350 (say for a tester) to 600 (skilled technical / middle management).

Upwards of 600 tends to be the specialists and project managers.

600 out of London is very very good, I would have thought. City (London) rates tend to be around £550 on average I would have thought.

[DS23]

whatever it is it's never enough.

[helen7]

To give you a helpful answer.

Where are i am (blue chip, 50 miles out of london) majority of contracts are between 350 (say for a tester) to 600 (skilled technical / middle management).

Upwards of 600 tends to be the specialists and project managers.

[swamp]

Contracting rates vary from around zero (perhaps for a Bob coerced into 'contracting') to £1m a day for Red Adair in Kuwait 1991 (say). The various averages -- mean, mode & median -- would be somewhere between these two figures.

Hope this helps.

[DeludedAussie]

Mean, mode or median?

You've got to be specific on here.

All 3

I guess my question is what is the range of rates and what is the mean - Better

[swamp]

Mean, mode or median?

You've got to be specific on here.

[DeludedAussie]

I should do a poll but I just wonder what an average rate for IT contracting is

Yes I know its such a broad market and location will also be a factor but the sense I get is some contracts are paying £100 a day whereas others are paying >£900

Is that actually the case - Myself I ve been between 400 and 600 in London which I always thought was the top end of the contracting market

What are peoples thoughts?