

Ask HN: Hourly rate for freelancer (in Germany)? - angerman

Hi there! I'm trying to gauge in what range the hourly
rate in euro should be for freelance jobs.<p>I've recently graduated and hold something like a
masters-equivalent (German Diplom) degree in
mathematics with a minor in computer science 
from a renowned university. I've been tinkering 
with various programming languages since my childhood
but decided to study math because that looked more
like a challenge to learn new things I wouldn't
otherwise learn.<p>Background: The company that I worked for as a
student does not want to hire employees and would
like me to work for them as a freelancer.
This obviously puts the burdon of security,
insurance, etc. on me.
On the other hand it gives me more freedom, which
I would really enjoy; and it would open the door to
other clients.<p>The tasks would primarily include mobile application
development, currently only iOS, some PHP, making
estimates for projects and what ever comes up and
need solving (it's a software agency in it's infancy).
Presumably I could also get project and personnel
responsibility in the not so distant future.<p>I've been repeatedly told that I am very valuable to
the company, and I would judge at least my iOS
expertise way above theirs. Yet I think they try to
get me at a ridiculously low hourly rate.<p>Which is why I'd love to get some pointers in which
range I should expect/set the hourly range. I won't
disclose the current offer they made, as the negotiations
as still ongoing, but it's about at least 10eur away
from what I'd expect.<p>Any input would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
======
ra
I can give you a baseline to think about. First think about what the salary
for that job would be. Let's make up a number for arguments sake it's 10,000
euros a month (in total). (NB: I know nothing about Salaries in your part of
the world)

Now, freelancers have to work a lot of hours a week that aren't billable, for
various reasons.

So - for arguments sake, lets say you can do, on average, 5 hours a day of
billable time.

Let's also factor in public holidays, your holidays etc - so deduct 2 days a
month.

Let's assume a month is 4 weeks, so 20 working days available, but minus the 2
so 18.

18d x 5h = 90h/month

So to make the equivalent of the salaryman, you need to charge 10,000 / 90 =
111 euro / hour.

Obviously you should adjust this to take into consideration any other costs
you might have like professional indemnity insurance, accountants fees,
business registration... whatever.

I hope that helps.

~~~
angerman
Thanks! That's interesting but goes more into the direction I would think then
the direction the company seems to think.

My calculation went bottom up: say a low baseline salary of 25eur/h + 50%
freelance cost = 37.5eur/h + ~20% tax = ~45eur/h.

I guess that the company would calculate 70eur/h to 90eur/h for projects (e.g.
560-720eur/manday).

