Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hourlyrate

Calc: how to work out what I'm being paid

Solomon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:40:58 -0800

I need some help finding/creating a Calc/Excel formula that will help me track my breaks at work, depending on how long I work per day. I work shift of varying different lengths. One day I might work 3 hours, 7 the next and 4h30m the following day. I get a break time dependent on how long I've worked, which means I'm not paid for that period of time.

For example, if I work 3 hours, I get paid for 3 full hours. If I work 7 hours, I get a 45 minute unpaid break, which means I only get paid for 6h15m. If I work 4 hours, I get a 15 minute unpaid break, which means I get paid for 3h45m.

I want to be able to track in Openoffice Calc (by preference, though Excel will do) what hours I'm at work & what hours I get paid for, every week. I've uploaded a working copy of the spreadsheet here.

What formula do I need to put into F2, F3, etc, to work out how many hours I've been paid, and then return that number as a percentage (so I can easily multiply that number by my hourly wage, and get an idea of how much I'll actually be paid)?

I hope this is clear. I don't use spreadsheets very often.

How much should I charge to design a Web site?

desjardins — Sat, 19 May 2007 08:45:47 -0800

How much should I charge per hour for Web design services when I'm not a Real Designer? Two acquaintances have approached me about building Web sites for their small businesses. They are HTML-illiterate and design-impaired. One currently has a Web site up, and while it's functional, it's horribly designed and he knows it.

I worked in marketing for a few years, but as a project manager, not a designer. I did learn a lot about design, mostly through osmosis by hanging out with the uber-cool design team, and spare-time tinkering with Quark and Photoshop. Evidently I'm pretty decent, because they ended up assigning me the design and layout of several ads and invitations. I know Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS, and a little ASP and JavaScript. I know I can create a lovely, if not overly complex, site for either of these people; something they'll be really happy about. I've done it before for free for a family member's business.

But I have no idea how much to charge, since I'm not a designer per se (my degrees are in Sociology and Urban Planning, of which they are both definitely aware). Both want to pay me hourly. I'd like to maintain good business relationships with them, so I don't want to overcharge them or seem pretentious. I'm not in this for the money, but i don't want to be taken advantage of either. I think they realize that a Real Designer would be quite expensive, so they want someone they know who's reliable and who can do the basic job.

Hourly rate for freelance Powerpoint massaging?

The Michael The — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 08:01:01 -0800

What hourly rate should I charge to edit a Powerpoint presentation? I'm a 4th-year PhD student, and I TA'd for a certain professor in my department last spring; in that time I was also the de facto tech coordinator for the class. He approached me recently and asked me to help edit and spiffy up a Powerpoint presentation that he'll be giving to a few important groups, with compensation. I don't expect it to be more than a few hours of work at most, and he asked me for what I thought would be a fair rate, and now I pass that on to the hive mind. What is a reasonable and fair hourly rate to ask him for?

How much do I charge for copy editing?

limeonaire — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 07:36:10 -0800

Freelance copy editing: what's the going rate, and how much should I charge? I'm currently a copy editor for a local magazine, which pays me $15 an hour for my freelance (not technically on staff) copy editing each month. The magazine's editor recommended me to a friend of hers who's writing her dissertation and needs a skilled copy editor to put it through the wringer. If this works out, the friend is going to recommend me to her other Ph.D.-candidate friends as well.

It sounds very promising, and I'm looking forward to the work. I love copy editing. But since I'm just starting out with this, I'm really not sure what hourly rate I should charge. Here are my current thoughts:

-I get the sense that the price the magazine is paying me is a steal, but since it's my first professional copy editing gig and I have a day job, I'm okay with that. It's worth it to me to gain the experience. What I'd like to know is this: what's the industry standard hourly rate for copy editing? (Or yearly salary, broken down.)

-Should I give this woman a discount from my current "corporate" hourly rate, so to speak, because she's an individual (and a friend of my editor, who knows how much they're paying me at the magazine and might call foul if I charge this woman more)? Or should I charge her the same?

-A factor: I don't yet know how long the dissertation is, nor how dense it is, nor how tight the writing is, so it's tough to estimate how many hours this will take. This site says the rate is much higher for academic copy editors for exactly these reasons. This mediabistro thread talks about going rates, as well—$30 seems to be about average for book copy editing, but that's not academic copy editing. Should these references be a factor in my decision?

-Would it be better to charge a flat fee, plus a slightly lower hourly rate? That seems more complicated, but it could be an option.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this!