wtf: what the freelance
does anybody want to talk about fair rates for freelancers? fine, i'll do it!
Last month, a former colleague referred me to somebody in her network whose business needed a freelance marketer. I seemed like a perfect fit for this specific role and I was pretty sure it was going to be a slam dunk even if they were still interviewing other candidates. Well, they were, and those candidates were apparently asking for around $45/hr.
My rate is $150/hr.
There. I said it. Plain and simple and in fucking bold font. Do I always get $150/hr? No! I negotiate down when appropriate, particularly for small businesses I believe in and really want to work with, plus I package certain services or offer flat rates. Flexibility is part of the beauty of being a freelancer. But $45/hr? WTF?
Surely this is not the going rate for a paid media manager with 8 years of experience in NYC (where the company is based), especially not when the role spans 3 traditional ad agency departments:
📊 Paid Media: managing YouTube campaigns, including checking the work of another employee
☎️ PR: doing community outreach (not totally sure what this would have entailed tbh)
✍🏼Creative: copywriting and copyediting for social
I was stunned that anyone worth their salt would ask for so little money for so much work, so I did the only thing I could think to do: I brought it to my Instagram Stories.
As usual, my network delivered.
Here are the takeaways from some great conversations I had with folks working across different sectors of digital media and beyond (shoutout to a friend from high school who is now a teacher with a side hustle!):
$45/hr is indeed bananas low for someone who has been working in marketing for 8 years, especially in paid media and with management experience.
Most people are unsure what their rate should be for both paid and organic media (think, budgeting and running ads vs. making content and posting it to a brand’s IG account).
People who I consider talented and experienced in their fields are making $59, $75, $95, $135, and up to $150/hr. HUGE range for similar roles. Paid media is almost always at the higher end of this range.
Selling digital products in your field is a good way to make supplemental income. Paid Substack tiers, too.
To be clear, I don’t think this client was trying to rip anybody off. They had seemingly never worked with marketing freelancers before, so how would they know what it costs, right? I give them so much credit for initiating the conversation about rate discrepancy, asking my thoughts on the cause, and being genuinely engaged with my response. The two hypotheses I gave were:
Nobody is talking about their rates and these candidates genuinely thought $45/hr was fair. Other clients have accepted this rate (because it’s dirt cheap), so these freelancers assume they’re priced correctly and continue to pitch at $45/hr.
These candidates knew $45/hr was nuts but really needed work and decided to undercut the market with a lowball rate. Not great, but given the hellscape we’re living and trying to work in, I kind of get it.
So what’s a freelancer to do? 🤔
Get comfortable talking to other freelancers to figure out what a fair rate is for your work. Things like your years of experience, the task at hand, and the type of client will feed into the equation. The more information we all share with each other, the better we can put pieces together and figure out the right price for our services. It’s awkward! It’s vulnerable! But the more you talk about it, the easier it gets, and it feels really good when you arm someone with information they can use to get paid their worth.
Negotiate, but maintain boundaries, otherwise we’re all going to be screwed into working for $45/hr (Metaphorically speaking, of course. I am aware that $45/hr is nothing to sneeze at for certain jobs). I could write an entire Substack post on negotiating and setting boundaries in general – and in fact, I probably will.
Use your professional experience and those enlightening convos you’ve had with other freelancers to educate potential clients. Align on what exactly they’re looking for (1 person to cover 3 roles) and explain to them what that realistically costs (2-3x what they think it costs). Again, big awkward, but this can be a productive conversation that results in more money for you and/or other freelancers... or yeah, it could all go to hell and they’ll think you’re a stupid greedy know-it-all! Gauge each individual situation on which way this type of conversation is likely to go, and don’t take advice from a risk taker if you’re not willing to take risks, I guess. 🤷🏼♀️
As the youth used to say I think and on theme with the whole damn boulangerie – let’s get this bread. 🍞💸
P.S. The client did reach back out to me a month later because none of the $45/hr candidates felt like a good fit. 🤐
