Agency charging £12.95 per hour for me, yet i'm getting paid £7.00 per hour!

Yoghurt_Queen

Hello. Just wanted a bit of advice. I've got a two week contract at an office far, far away from where I live. It takes 1.5 hours to drive there and 2 hours to drive home. This is peeeing me off a little bit, but its work. Im a temp.

Anyway, I found out today that the agency are getting paid £12.95 per hour for me!

Do you think I have a leg to stand on, if I ask for a little bit more, ie. something along the lines of, how about a pay rise, I know what you charge, and I am spending about £60 per week petrol? Or should i just keep my mouth shut and be greatful? What would you do?

AP007

They charge the company more as they have to pay employers NI on you and its a fee also for admin charges. Did you know that?

What's your travel expenses got to do with anything? You should have negotiated a higher rate before you took the job.

HappyMJ

Yoghurt_Queen wrote: »

Hello. Just wanted a bit of advice. I've got a two week contract at an office far, far away from where I live. It takes 1.5 hours to drive there and 2 hours to drive home. This is peeeing me off a little bit, but its work. Im a temp.

Anyway, I found out today that the agency are getting paid £12.95 per hour for me!

Do you think I have a leg to stand on, if I ask for a little bit more, ie. something along the lines of, how about a pay rise, I know what you charge, and I am spending about £60 per week petrol? Or should i just keep my mouth shut and be greatful? What would you do?

You need to negotiate your rate before you sign the contract. Don't mention what they charge. Just say "at £7 an hour it's not worth my while..if you want my services I want £10 an hour." If you are good they'll pay it. If they don't agree don't do the job. If you have already signed just do the 2 weeks and don't renew unless they agree to more.

Denning.

They are a business, you are a product, they need to cover costs on you as well as profit.

somethingcorporate

Seems quite a low margin to me, in the past I've known agencies to be charging 2-3 times what they were paying the employee. It's how they make their money!

drbraindead

Im not sure why you are so concerned, the rate seems pretty normal for an agency.

Denning.

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Seems quite a low margin to me, in the past I've known agencies to be charging 2-3 times what they were paying the employee. It's how they make their money!

Depends entirely on the role. 7ph would imply relatively low skill, so lower margins.

comeandgo

The firm I used to work for charged me out at £50 an hour and I got paid less than half that. My garage charge me £80 an hour for work they do but I bet the mechanic on my car gets nowhere near that.

xsupercarlx

How did you think Agencies work?

Yoghurt_Queen

xsupercarlx wrote: »

How did you think Agencies work?

The job I was in last, the agency charged £15.00 per hour for me, and I was paid £11.00 per hour. I was just surprised to find that the amount was almost double on this assignment. That's all. Sorry if i've ruffled a few feathers. I've decided to pull out of the booking for next week, as its not worth my while.

Infact, I wont be using this agency again as I think that paying the temp just HALF or almost half of what they are getting is going too far. Of course, I totally understand profit margins and that they have to charge more. (what an utterly stupid question - above????!!!) But to charge double??!!! Surely they could stretch to a bit more. Im out of this one. Will stick to the other agency who are a bit fairer. I'm a PA by the way.

Yoghurt_Queen

xsupercarlx wrote: »

How did you think Agencies work?

I thought that if they pay you £10.00 per hour, they charged about £13.00 per hour. Or thereabouts. NOT DOUBLE. THAT IS TAKING the mickey.