Current UK Freelance Rates by Job Type and Industry

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A good place to start when setting your freelance rates is to check out what others in your line of work are charging. Here you can find listings of the current UK freelance rates for specific industries and jobs, and also sites where you can look at the rates for a range of skills across the board and find out what others are charging.

Industry & Job Specific Freelance Rates

Some industry bodies and freelance specialist agencies publish recommended rates. Here are some of the best sources for UK based freelancers:

•  IT Jobs Watch tracks current rates in the full range of IT contract work.

• The London Freelance Branch of the National Union of Journalists publishes suggested minimum freelance rates for work in; broadcasting, publishing, writing, editing – including website copy, photography, picture editing, illustration, media design, layout, crosswords, public relations, media teaching/training, translation

• The Society for Editors and Proofreaders suggested minimum fee rates for different types of freelance editing and proofreading work.

• The Society of Authors publishes rates that their members report to them for writing work.

• Televisual.com TV production industry survey of day rates.

• The Writers Guild have negotiated agreements for bodies such as the BBC covering minimum rates of payment for writers in film, theatre and broadcasting.

• Major Players survey of creative and marketing industry professionals shows freelance daily rates as well as employed salaries.

• OurNameIsMud  website designers/developers daily rates estimator depending on your location, field and experience. This is based on annual industry surveys.

• Cogs Agency Digital & advertising freelance day rates benchmarking.

• ISM (Incorporated Society of Musicians) Musicians, composers, accompanists, music tutors fees survey.

• Musicians Union and Association of British Orchestras Orchestral musicians agreed rates.

• ProZ.com freelance website shows average rates charged by translators on their site, and you can look on their directory for more detail of the rates individuals set.

• Home Tutors Directory lists average charge rates for private tutors for school and higher education students.

Across the Board Freelance Rate Comparisons

You can also look at general freelance work sites to see what rates fellow freelancers are advertising their services for. Remember that these will be taking into account within their rates any fees they have to pay to the freelance website:

people4business:  Lists freelancers by skills and each shows their hourly and daily charge out rates.

peopleperhour: Search for the skills you have and see what hourly rates others are charging.

odesk:  Browse the freelancers by skills category. You can choose to display only UK freelancers. Hourly rates are shown in US$ so you’ll need to convert it.

elance: Select a skills category or search by keyword. You can refine the listings to show only UK freelancers.

Freelancer:  Sort freelancers by category and skills. Shows their hourly rates in US$. Click through to the profiles and you’ll see the projects they’ve actually won and what they were paid.

Guru: Sort by skills and you can see the hourly rates and minimum project fees that freelancers are charging on Guru.com.  The listings also show how much they have earned so you can get an idea how their listings appeal to the buyers.