Realistic hourly rate for self employed worker

mikeyw

Hi,

My wife has recently been made redundant after 20+ years working as an office manager / HR manager earning in the region of £40k p/a

She is very experienced in this area and has good organisational / admin skills as well.

Recently she's been working in a temp basis supporting a local small business with only 4 staff that is very busy and desperate for her experience. They want her to work self employed so they have none of the costs or commitments of a permanent employee.

Obviously she will have no holiday or sick pay nor a pension contribution.

They want her to work 30hrs a week mostly doing the admin for the businesses but also involved with some basic selling in one of their divisions.

Does anyone have a feel for what is a realistic hourly rate here that she should be asking for? - it's not London but a good paying part of the country in the Leeds / York area.

This is a whole new area for us and i'm concerned she'll been underpricing herself without appreciating the additional cost of being self employed in this capacity.

Tia,
M

elsien

Will she be genuinely self-employed (and free to turn down work/work for home/do work for other people) or is it just a way for the company to avoid its obligations?

Stevie_Palimo

This question is like asking how long is a piece of string as there are so many things to take into consideration here.

I am self employed and my wage is not an exact science as to hourly rate but working for someone else you do need to set a guideline as to billing them for work carried out, She needs to sit down and discuss this with them and see what they believe a reasonable amount is for the work done.

She would then need to work out if the offer is fair or not, Nobody on here can tell you that your wife should get £5.00 or £50.00 per hour as they know nothing about the full details on the employment or the level of expertise she brings to the table.

mikeyw

I appreciate it's very difficult to offer advice.

They pay her an hourly rate so that's what i need to try and establish what is fair. She's mid 40's with 20+years employment experience in a fairly senior role so don't feel £5-10hr is realistic. They are employing her based on her ability and experience not because she was the 1st available person they could find for an unskilled job.

I was hoping someone may be doing something similar after long term permanent employment.

Like any employer they'll hope to pay as little as possible whilst keeping her motivated, for it to work best there needs to be a fair balance.

Stevie_Palimo

mikeyw wrote: »

I appreciate it's very difficult to offer advice.

They pay her an hourly rate so that's what i need to try and establish what is fair. She's mid 40's with 20+years employment experience in a fairly senior role so don't feel £5-10hr is realistic. They are employing her based on her ability and experience not because she was the 1st available person they could find for an unskilled job.

I was hoping someone may be doing something similar after long term permanent employment.

Like any employer they'll hope to pay as little as possible whilst keeping her motivated, for it to work best there needs to be a fair balance.

I didn't add £5-£10.00 as a wage and added up to £50.00, None the less adding figures means nothing as you have far too many specifics to consider here when looking at a fair wage, If your wife is happy with lets say £12.00 per hour and the firm are willing to pay it then that is all that matters, Your wife needs to sit and discuss this with them directly as online hear say on what is a fair rate is way off the mark when discussing what one person thinks is fair to another persons view on the matter.

getmore4less

I think you have to step back and assess the actual work first.

is this just a bit of admin or are they leveraging the expertise and experience to make productivity improvements and run the office...

more of admin consultant...

lets go with the latter with £40k is the going rate for a permanent position doing 40hr week with statutory holidays

£40,000/(46.4*40)= £21.55ph.

that's before you factor in the other things like benefits and reduced costs for an employer.

A contract rate is going to be in the order of £35+ph.

at the other end is min wage with holiday pay £8.41.


A quick google Leeds office manager is finding jobs in the £20k-£28k bracket they are worth at least £20ph on self employed/contract basis.

Undervalued

elsien wrote: »

Will she be genuinely self-employed (and free to turn down work/work for home/do work for other people) or is it just a way for the company to avoid its obligations?

Providing she goes into it with her eyes open, the numbers stack up and she properly declares her income then any comeback would be on the "employer" not the OP's wife.

She need to factor in, at the very least, 5.6 weeks holiday, perhaps an average of a week's sick pay, lack of employer's NI contributions and any employer's contribution to a pension. Also, being female, is the lack of paid maternity leave a consideration?

ThemeOne

Agree with all the above, but I suggest she quotes a day rate rather than an hourly rate, simply because more senior roles tend to be paid by the day.

She would have to define what a "day" is of course, and get the company to sign an agreement.

Even if she decides to go for hourly, do get them to sign an agreement.

Pennywise

I'd suggest somewhere in the region of £20-£25 per hour for someone senior/experienced doing administration work would be realistic.

You don't want to be heading any lower - the most basic data entry work is charged at £10-£15 per hour on a self employed basis and your wife sounds a lot better than that!

In fact, if she's running the office, doing management style work too, then she should be looking at more, maybe the £25-£30 per hour region.

All depends on the type of work she's expected to do, i.e. level of work, degree of responsibility, etc.

martinsurrey

£40k per year is £171 per working day (28 days holiday).

Add in 13.8% eers NI £23.60

Add in pension contributions of 5% £8.55

Add in sickness cover at UK average of 6.5 days per year of £4.88 (6.5/227.5*171, being the number of sick days income to be earnt over the remaining days)

for a similar job I would be looking at a min of £210 per day

Add in a notional amount for the lack of employee rights and you are getting to a ball park figure.

(adjust the above is you think a full time perm role would be under £40k)

Bogalot

How much is she being paid currently? Also does she know how much the other staff earn?

I'm all for not going in too low, but there's a danger of going in too high and causing embarrassment all round. I would be amazed if they offer anywhere near £40K for some admin and a bit of basic sales.