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

7 points by angerman 14y ago ↗ HN

Hi there! I'm trying to gauge in what range the hourly rate in euro should be for freelance jobs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Any input would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

2 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 14.9 ms ] thread

ra 14y ago ↗

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 14y ago ↗

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).