Reply to: So what is a "good" rate?

[tarbera]

For a 50% higher rate I would genuinely love the work, my colleagues and the organisation

For 50% higher rate I would genuinely make love to my work, colleagues and the organisation also

[kaiser78]

Also depends on sector - Financial Services is obviously very different to e.g. Public Sector.

Across all contracting I would say 450-550 is a good rate outside FS.

For me, I also factor in work/life balance and how interesting the work/company looks. However, not everyone can afford that luxury in the current market.

Personally, good is 600-700, great 750+.

My last rate was 600 in a not for profit. A mate was doing almost an identical role for 900 but I wouldn't have swapped as I genuinely loved the work, my colleagues and the organisation.

For a 50% higher rate I would genuinely love the work, my colleagues and the organisation

[edison]

Also depends on sector - Financial Services is obviously very different to e.g. Public Sector.

Across all contracting I would say 450-550 is a good rate outside FS.

For me, I also factor in work/life balance and how interesting the work/company looks. However, not everyone can afford that luxury in the current market.

Personally, good is 600-700, great 750+.

My last rate was 600 in a not for profit. A mate was doing almost an identical role for 900 but I wouldn't have swapped as I genuinely loved the work, my colleagues and the organisation.

[d000hg]

Times change.

Java when it was the big thing in the 90's, I knew a guy on 2.5K per day.
That wasn't unusual.

And we wonder why everything went titsup

[SeanT]

I work in automation / devops type roles, and for me £450 is decent outside of London. £550 if I have to commute into the big smoke.

Both pretty average bordering on low now imho. Seem to be a few firms trying to drive these down though.

[Bluenose]

Obviously everyone's perception may be different. But there I always talk of a "good" rate. For me anything £400 and above is a good rate for a PM / PMO role. How about you?

Looking at the market stats, I would say £450pd is the average offered rate, £650pd is a good rate and anything over £800pd is an excellent rate.

The truth is anything that pays the bills and you find interesting is a good rate.

[MyUserName]

I started out on £500 a day in London about 5 years ago.

I then got offered £450 a day about 20 minutes from my house and I stayed there for two years until I returned to the perm world.

The highest I ever went for was £1200 a day. I would have loved that one :-(

[lecyclist]

"Good rates" are also country specific and dependent on your tax setup. A flat number (unless it is very large) is meaningless without context. In Germany it used to be around €700 per day, until tax laws on freelancers changed. In Sweden €900 per day (or £800) is still good considering the tax situation. Declared UK rates are definitely down on the job sites, but that could be as much a reflection on the use of other recruiting channels (LinkedIn etc) for higher quality positions, as anything else

[kaiser78]

Better than your last rate.

+1 from me.

[MrMarkyMark]

A good rate is one that pays the bills and allows you to build a decent warchest. A great rate does that in a shorter amount of time.

It does, as long as it lasts

[ladymuck]

A good rate is one that pays the bills and allows you to build a decent warchest. A great rate does that in a shorter amount of time.

[uk contractor]

This is like saying anything above 30K is a great salary.

Funnily enough 30K is now the base salary for many support & back office roles in the city so FS sector seems to think its a great salary. I remember the good old days when they used to have to offer £50-60K + a hefty bonus to fill these roles (you needed all of that as well to pay the daily lunchtime bar bill alone!!).

[MrMarkyMark]

Good grief, even in the late 1990's I would have described a good rate as being above 400 a day. How times haven't moved on. This is like saying anything above 30K is a great salary.

Times change.

Java when it was the big thing in the 90's, I knew a guy on 2.5K per day.
That wasn't unusual.

[vwdan]

Good grief, even in the late 1990's I would have described a good rate as being above 400 a day. How times haven't moved on. This is like saying anything above 30K is a great salary.

Firstly, the key word is "good", not great.

Secondly, even after a good amount of expenses, £400p/d is putting you in the top 2% of earners in the country. £30k, on the other hand, is only just above the average salary.

[BlasterBates]

Good grief, even in the late 1990's I would have described a good rate as being above 400 a day. How times haven't moved on. This is like saying anything above 30K is a great salary.