?? A FREELANCER'S DAY RATE COVERS A LOT OF COSTS, WE'RE NOT CHEAP LABOUR ??

Why am I saying this?

I've just seen a 'job ad' that's made me so angry that I've dug deep into my uni admin days, of working out salary costs, pension allocations, desk costs, encumbrances.

It lists a lowest rate of ￡100 for an 800 word blog.

This is unacceptable.

Because I'm f*cking sick of companies treating freelancers like cheap labour. Of not even thinking about what our day rates cover.

And like the good nerd I am, and the teacher's pet I longed to be, I'm going to break this shit down for you all:

Let's use this ￡100 'opportunity' as a learning moment.

￡100 is a lot of money to most of us. Hell, my vet owes me ￡71, and I'm delighted, it's going to make a big difference to me this week.

￡100 is a unit that I've used to explain my freelance work to my kids, especially when we're out and I buy things on my business account, such as newspapers and books (I'm a writer). It helps me when a deposit pings through and they're on the iPad, so they know how much of our lives a precious deposit needs to cover, and how much of it we don't even see, because it goes to HMRC, so I can afford to not work to take them on holiday, to save for my pension and times of sickness.

You know, the stuff a salary covers.

I explain it like this:

"Say I earn ￡100. Around 25% goes straight on taxes. Then I have to save around another 20% for holiday and sick pay, and around another 10% for my pension. "

From ￡100, I make around ￡45.

That doesn't cover the costs of doing business: memberships, insurance, reading material, travel. Those lovely weekend newspapers, full of brilliant writing and ideas, that help me to keep honing my trade.

So, let's take another fiver off.

From ￡100, I make around ￡40. To live off.

Let's take another look at this 'opportunity'.

This 'ad' is a screenshot I took from a professional slack community, half an hour before writing this. I thought about saying it straight to the OP, but they're a founder - they'll know what they're doing.

Hell, I will check if this is a typo. But.

I'm not going to name and shame someone. I don't want a fight with someone who must know what they're doing because they run what appears to be a successful content agency (tip: if someone's providing you content through an agency, you might want to know how they're paying their writers).

This 'opportunity' is to write a blog post. To fulfil that brief, a freelance writer usually needs to

1. Be briefed
2. Pitch an interesting story with a compelling hook, one that fits into the client's brand
3. Research the story
4. Maybe interview people (setting up those interview times and doing the diary juggle)
5. You know, write the f*cking thing
6. Proofread it
7. Provide source evidence
8. Maybe upload to a convoluted client portal
9. Accept amends
10. Edit the piece
11. Finally, submit it

All this, for ￡100.

Well really, for ￡40.

That's around 6-7 hours work. That's nothing to say about the admin of speaking to this potential client, prepping their portfolio, meeting them, setting up the financials, submitting invoices, chasing invoices, speaking with your own accountant, logging the invoice, checking your hours ...

It takes a lot of work to do good work.

How does this break down as a fee? ??

A freelancer working 6 hours at a gross fee of ￡100 makes ￡16.67 an hour. Gross.

(For those of you in paid employment, that means before tax, NI, pension etc. Not trying to be patronising; I'm guessing not everyone reading this fuming post will have worked with salaries; that's cool, I don't know how to create a full stack, mark an A level transcript or build a wall.)

Every gross payment requires a deduction of around 25%. You might be able to deduct a couple of quid on costs. Say you can deduct ￡5 costs, leaving a taxable gross fee of ￡95.

• ￡95/7 hours = ￡13.57 an hour, gross.
• 25% of ￡13.39 is ￡3.35.
• ￡13.57 gross - ￡3.35 tax & NI = ￡10.22 net.

We've not even thought about pension, sickness, insurance.

And frankly, at these rates, who can afford to get sick?

How does this compare to a salaried writer? ??

As I said, back in the days when I kept a research project running, I used to work these costs out. Sitting at my lovely big desk, with my two monitors and a view over London from Denmark Hill, I'd work out the salary costs for a team of 10-35 people, and what that would cost us as a project over 5 years. I quite liked it, really. Numbers in boxes. Orderly and neat. Every couple of months I'd check off my figures, make sure we were on target.

Anyway. Every staff member has a 'staff cost' that includes items such as pension, NI, tax. The cost of that lovely desk. The cost of the window cleaners and their scary long poles. That branded mug. The rent of the building you're sitting in, in another meeting you probably don't need to be in.

Newsflash: everything costs money.

Glassdoor average a middleweight copywriter's salary at ￡37, 422. That translates to a takehome pay of c.￡20.79/hour.

How? ￡37, 422 / 48 working weeks = ￡779.63 week

￡779.63 / 37.5 hours = ￡20.79 hour

That's how you work out a UK person's salary; the holiday cost is aggregated over the year. Your holiday is covered to the individual.

If memory serves, a person's full hourly cost to their employer would be c. ￡28, but I'm basing that on public sector (higher pension, but I'm guessing a lower cost because, you know, public sector).

What does a day rate cover?

Whatever, the take home for a salaried person is c.￡20.79/hour with pension, sickness and benefits taken care of.

The take home for a freelancer, here, is c. ￡10.22/hour, with no pension, sickness or any benefits.

That's less that a pound above the Living Wage.

Does that sound like a fair exchange to you?

A freelancer's day rate covers our sickness, our pension, our insurance, our laptops and training. Our expertise, our independence. The skills we've learned across our careers, and can deploy effectively, to help you grow your business.

We are not cheap labour. We are highly skilled experts. You can't be a freelancer and deliver poorly. You will not survive! No one will hire you!

And no, your business is not an exception. Just because you're a start-up, doesn't mean you get cheap rates; just because you're an organic food company, doesn't mean you're a charity (especially when your turnover is c.￡6M a year).

If you can't afford the service, that is, as my dear colleague Candice would say, a "YP, not an MP - your problem, not my problem."

And you can sure as shit guess that this blog, and all the work around it, would take more than 7 hours. I'm guessing around 14. If that's true, you're looking at around a fiver an hour. Before deductions.

Do you think middleweight writers should earn little more than the living wage?

I don't know the level of detail this person wants. But they market themselves as delivering quality. Corporate bloggers research, interview, fact check, provide evidence. Two years ago, this was how I was advised to price, and this is how my more experienced peer would fix this ad (knowing her, she's rise it higher).

Please, just f*ck off if you think it's okay to pay people like this.

If you need expert freelance help, find the budget for it. Don't get an intern: find the budget, or make do without. It's your call.

Pay. people. fairly.

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

#fairpay #freelancerates