How much should they pay me?

September 3, 2007 11:23 PM

In Northern Virginia, for temporary office work through an agency, how much should I ask the agency for, per hour, in USD? How much will I actually reasonably get?

I'm in Northern Virginia, Chantilly/Centreville area. I've never had a job (not even flipping burgers) before. I have an A.S. in Computer Science and an A.S. in Science/Mathematics. GPA is not terribly good, but not failing. I can type, do basic computery things, use complete sentences, etc. Mostly I am just sick of school and would like a no-heavy-lifting job without being taken for a fool or an easy mark. So how much should I ask for, per hour, in USD, and how much should I actually expect to get? (And a bonus question, are there other trick questions I should prep for?)

posted by anaelith to Work & Money (9 answers total)

your skills don't really have that much to do with it. They make their money by placing people at jobs- so if they can talk the client into taking you, they really don't care how "qualified" you are.

it's been a while for me, but you could expect to make anywhere from $10-20 an hour probably. (you dont have a "salary" from the agency in almost all cases, the rate will vary per assignment) You really don't have much room to negotiate, because the agency has a huge roster of people and there's bound to be someone willing to take the job for the crappily low rate they quoted you.

The agency will of course always pay you as little as they can get away with, and they ABSOLUTELY will lie about what their margin is. Typically the client is paying them somewhere in the area of double your salary, yet if you ask for more money, the agency will claim they can't b/c they're only getting a few dollars more than your salary from the client.

so to summarize, you might negotiate a buck or two more from the salary the agency first quotes you, but they may also tell you to take it or leave it. And if they ask you how much you got paid at your last job/gig, absolutely positively lie about it. Because the rate they then quote you as "the most the client can possibly pay" will always happen to be one dollar above the number you just mentioned.

however, since you have a CS degree, maybe you could aim a bit higher? Even being familiar with basic HTML/CSS could get you development jobs that will earn a lot more pay and respect than basic admin stuff. There are a million of specialist technical agencies, so you might want to talk to them. Or the agency you're with might have a technical "wing." It's worth asking at least. (this is how i first got into web development- I was doing crappy office work, I told the agency I knew HTML (I didnt even have any formal training), and they placed me as a developer, and I put that gig on my resume and continued to get work from there)
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:48 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

drjimmy11's absolutely right.

I haven't worked through temp agencies but I've seen entry-level-ish wages offered through temp-to-perm headhunters in the DC area everywhere from $10/hr (friend of mine working part-time as a receptionist to pay her way through an A.S.) through $18/hr (offer for a helpdesk position I recieved last fall with a B.A. and about a year of experience in hand). Those were Montgomery County, MD wages, though -- don't know what's up in Centreville. Given your lack of experience, I'm not really sure where to aim -- I'd say be ambitious, but I'm not sure how ambitious is too ambitious.

If you're looking towards IT work (either support or development), I have a contact at a technical recruiter in the NoVA area I'd be glad to share; they did alright by a friend of mine and got me a couple of interviews. Drop me an email.
posted by Alterscape at 11:58 PM on September 3, 2007

Fire up Excel, make a budget, calculate the wage that makes the numbers work, and ask for that.

Note that agencies charge the end employer MUCH more than the rate you get, so your bargaining power is limited.

Alternatively, search for computer-type jobs in your area, choose one, and learn how to do it over the next 6 months [ie. create a portfolio], then apply for a similar one when it appears.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:33 AM on September 4, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I'm still looking for a hard number answer to the question "How much do you think we should pay you?" since this is unfortunately a question that appears on all of the forms (and the blank is just too small to put "damned if I know" or "the most you're willing to" or "just give me money plzthx").

Alterscape--thanks, but I'm kind of shying away from IT at the moment, too many crazy people (no offense).
posted by anaelith at 3:36 AM on September 4, 2007

Dr. Jimmy's wrong. I used to work in the corporate HQ of a staffing company, and the markup on temp work never approaches 100%. Try 30-50%, depending on the type of work and the type of agreement the agency has with the customer.

For office work with reasonable computer skills you can expect to make $12-14/hr and the agency will get several bucks an hour.

The staffing industry's margins are much lower than you might think.
posted by look busy at 7:00 AM on September 4, 2007

Oh, and if you get tech work as opposed to office monkey work, you'll get closer to $20 depending on what you're doing.
posted by look busy at 7:01 AM on September 4, 2007

If you think IT has too many crazy people, as in any other area is going to be notably better, you're in for a rude awakening.

The quickest rule of thumb for salary is that a full time annual income, in thousands, is twice the hourly wage. So $11 an hour yields 22,000 per year, assuming you work the standard 2080 hours.

(Obviously the real exact wage is $11 * 2080, but you're looking at jobs that won't have paid vacation anyway so if you take off two weeks unpaid then it WILL be *2000)

I think with your (lack of) experience and skills you can expect to be getting $11-15 an hour. My cohort here who was a temp in this (your) area a few years back was was making $12 an hour at the time.
posted by phearlez at 7:43 AM on September 4, 2007

As far as stating salary requirements on the employment form, just put "negotiable" if you want to leave room for, well, negotiations. Somewhere between $10-$14 an hour is about right, but if you tell them $10 and they normally pay $14, they will pay you $10. If you do go in to the agency for an interview and they ask for your salary requirements, simply ask them if there is a range they normally pay. Let them state the concrete number(s) first, then go with the higher end of the range. Never hurts to start out that way, and let them negotiate with you rather than providing a lowballed guess and getting screwed.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 7:58 AM on September 4, 2007

Hey I'm in the same area and have a lot of experience with temping both as a temp myself and through work. I'd say that experience is a big must so that you are going to have to settle for a lower paying job than you think you deserve. I'd say the 11-14 dollar range is just about right, most companies who are willing to pay 20 dollars an hour would require a lot more experience than you have. So I'd stick with that range and then, as you put in some time, you can start asking for higher paying jobs.
posted by CAnneDC at 9:25 AM on September 4, 2007