IT-Rates.au

IT-Rates.au offers Australian IT contractors advice on appropriate rates to charge. All information is provided by fellow contractors. Please add your current contract rate.

Below is some information on Contracting Benefits, Tips & Tricks and the Benefits of using a Shelf Company.

Date	Position Type	Rate/hr	Agent	City	Duration
11/98	Unisys hardware - USAS (Unisys Standard Airline System)	$70	$7	Sydney	6 months
6/98	Netware 4.11 Admin/Support	$65	?	Sydney	2 months
6/98	NT 4.0 Admin/Support	$55	$5	Sydney	6 months
9/98	NetWare/NT Migration	$55	?	Sydney	12 months
9/98	NetWare LAN/WAN Admin/Support	$55	?	Sydney	6 months
6/96	PC/LAN Support	$45	$15	Sydney	2 years
6/98	NT 4.0 Admin/Support	$35	?	Sydney	3 months
6/98	NT 4.0 Application Integration Testing, Rollout	$35	?	Sydney	3 months
5/98	Netware 3.12, Windows 95 Support	$30	$10	Sydney	3 months
5/98	Groupwise 4.1 Admin, Netware 4.1 Admin/Support	$29	?	Sydney	3 months
6/98	Windows 95 Help Desk	$25	?	Sydney	4 months
7/98	Software Test Engineer	$40	$10	Sydney	6 months
8/98	Visual Basic Development	$50	$15	Sydney	?
8/98	Technical Writing	$35	$15	Sydney	3 months
1/99	VAX/VMS Operator	$35	$10	Sydney	6 months
5/98	Groupwise 5.1/4.1 Admin	$60	$5	Brisbane	12 months
6/98	Netware 4.11 Admin/Support	$45	?	Brisbane	2 months
6/98	Netware 4.11/3.12 Admin/Support	$42	?	Brisbane	6 months
5/98	Groupwise 4.1 Admin, Netware 4.1/3.12 Admin/Support	$27	$18	Brisbane	9 months
6/98	Windows 3.11, MS Office Help Desk	$24	$6	Brisbane	6 months
10/98	Windows 95, MS Office 97 Roll-out	$20	?	Brisbane	1 month
6/98	C++/CORBA/Unix	$42	?	Brisbane	4 months
7/98	Visual Basic	$30	$8	Brisbane	8 months
10/98	Y2K Business Analyst/Tester (Small Apps. & Desktop)	$40	?	Brisbane	5 months
9/98	NT 4, Exchange 5.5 Admin/Support	$60	$6	Canberra	6 months
2/99	Software Distribution	$50	$7	Canberra	3 months
9/98	Netware 3/4, NT 4, Exchange 5.5 Admin/Support	$49	$6	Canberra	6 months
9/98	Exchange 5.5 Admin/Support	$48	?	Canberra	6 months
9/98	Netware 3/4 Admin/Support	$48	$7	Canberra	3 months
9/98	Netware 3/4, NT 4, Exchange 5.5 Admin/Support	$45	$6	Canberra	7 months
6/98	Software Distribution	$45	$8	Canberra	3 months
7/98	Netware 4.1 Admin/Support	$45	$?	Canberra	3 months
5/98	Netware 3/4 Admin/Support	$40	$5	Canberra	2 months
6/98	Netware 3/4 Admin/Support	$35	?	Canberra	5 months
4/98	PC/LAN Support	$45	$18	Melbourne	8 months
10/98	Desktop Support	$27	$12	Melbourne	3 months
6/98	Lotus Notes/IT Consulting	$58	?	Melbourne	12 months
8/98	Internet/Visual Basic Development	$45	$6	Melbourne	6 months
5/98	Application Integration Testing	$45	$5	Perth	3 months
7/98	Netware/NT Admin	$38	?	Perth	8 months
7/98	Netware/NT Admin	$25	?	Perth	?
1/99	Senior C++	$55	n/a	Perth	6 months
9/98	IBM Production Support - COBOL,VSAM,DB2,SAS,EASYTRIEVE,JCL,ISPF	$46	$9	Adelaide	?

The rate listing is ordered by city, discipline, then by rate. As a more useful list is compiled a greater selection of options may be available. Thanks.

Please feel free to email your contracting info (date, position type, rate/hr, agent's margin above your rate if known, city, contract duration). You won't find any wonderful links, images, ads, mpegs or exciting java applets here, and unfortunately, no auto update facility either. I will update this page as often as possible however, and as more information is sent in, contractors (especially new contractors) will be able to obtain a more accurate idea of what they should be asking for.

Please note that this site has only recently started. As much rate information as possible is needed in order for this list to be useful to everyone. Please advise your colleagues, and help us compile more information.

Contracting Benefits, Tips & Tricks

• There are at least 10 IT employment agencies available in most cities, over 30 in Sydney
• It is worth submitting your resume to most agencies, be careful not to have your resume sent to the same client by different agencies however.
• Submit your resume (Word 6 format) with availability, skill and pay details to each agency via email (all agencies will accept this), check the Saturday paper regularly for positions (The Australian on Tuesday is great for Sydney jobs), continually call agencies about any advertised jobs you like, regularly resend resume (updates)
• Agencies may contact you to offer a position, more likely however, you may have to respond to an advertised position
• Clients will usually advertise a position with 2-3 agencies
• Agencies can rarely submit more than a handful of resumes to clients for each position because of a lack of available IT people.
• Agencies will usually hound you to sign a contract after a successful interview, however they are rarely heard from again until the end of a contract – don’t expect quality service.
• Try and resist any inteview by the agency (as opposed to a client) prior to the agency offering a position as this is usually a big waste of your time.
• Any rate you are quoted for a position will include your superannuation payment. Actual rate = rate / 1.07
• Contractors are employees of their agency. The agency will deduct tax, make super payments (deducted from your rate), and pay workers compensation.
• Never take a contract where the agency pays monthly. Fortnightly is far more secure for you, weekly, if you can get it, is even better.
• Contracts are generally very weak legal documents and are not even legal unless every page is numbered and signed. A clause restricting your post-contract work at the same client is usually included. This is an illegal restriction of trade and will not stand up in court, however it’s not worth the hassle of having the clause removed, so just sign anyway knowing that it’s unenforcable.

• At the time that you give an agency permission to submit of your resume to a client, ask the agent to clearly state their margin on your contract, and definitely ask for a proposed hourly rate. This is virtually the only stage at which to negotiate rates and margins with the agent, as the agent will offer a specific price to their client for your contract. The agent can lower the price with your consent, however they certainly can't increase it.
• Experienced contractors tend to offer a margin to the agency as part of the negotiation, and demand a specific hourly rate, and if unacceptable to the agent, the contractor can take their services elsewhere. (There's certainly no lack of IT agencies around.)
• Standard agency margins are between $4/hr and $7/hr for any contract and any hourly rate. In rare cases an agent will take less than a $2/hr margin in order to keep your business. All too commonly however, they will keep up to $25/hr above what they give to an inexperienced contractor who doesn't know what the client is charged.
• Agencies will tell you of their standard 20% or 30% margin. This is not true, as many contractors earning $50/hr will not allow more than $6 to be taken as a margin, just as someone earning $80/hr will not allow any more than $6. Remember, you're the one working the hours. It's your money, not theirs!

• Always advise agencies that your current rate is $10 more than it actually is. Agents will always ask what you're getting now, and will always try to play down anything much higher than your current rate in order to make them more competitive to the client.

• If your contract allows you a certain period of notice, continually search for new contracts at higher rates. If you are offered a higher rate elsewhere, use your notice period to demand a rate increase or agency margin reduction. Alternatively you can just take the higher paying contract.
• Start looking for new contracts at least 2 months before your current contract ends. Agencies can be a bit slow to realise that you actually told them of your availability over a month ago.

• To compare contracting pay to the permanent equivalent, use something like this: [ ($rate/hr * 40hrs * 48 wks) / 1.07 (superannuation 7%)] - workers compensation (1%). Note that using a company will minimise your superannuation in most cases.
• Annual contracting income turns out to be roughly 2000 times a given hourly rate.

• Short-term contracts can pay $5-10/hr more than longer-term equivalents, however there's usually not much difference.