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Engineer-contractor pay range

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z.james37:
Hello

I am a nuclear engineer with 8-10 years of experience with background in electrical/mechanical/licensing areas (different projects-different responsebilities over time).  I am contemplating in becoming a consultant/contractor but do not know what an appropriate billing rate is for someone like me. All questions below assume there are no benefits.

Is $80 an hour + per diem for a 1-year contract reasonable? 

What about jobs where you can work from home (e.g, an MCNP calc)- no per diem, but should the billing rate change to reflect the benefit of working from home?   

Should one charge more for projects that are only a month or two in duration? - I am thinking that longer term projects are more desirable (hence cpmpensation is lower) but maybe I got this one wrong...

thanks for any feedback

dea:
Looks like $80/hr is at the high end, check this site http://www.gcservices.com/ it's one of the few sites that I have seen that actually shows compensation rates.

ski2313:
Pair of pay ranges I've seen for contractors, that might be considered long term (18-24 months):

procedure writer for uprate AOPs/EOPs = $80/hr no per diem

Ops training instructor = $105/hr plus $100/d per diem

Just as a disclaimer, these two guys had about 70 years of nuke experience between them, probably makes a difference.

z.james37:
Thanks guys - for someone like me the number i used does seem to be in the uper range..(even though I would most definitely deserve that pay hehe)...this contracting stuff is interesting though - I could take half a year off and make the same amount of money as working an equivalent full time job...time to make my prons/cons list in excel... 

tr:
Don't forget to include the benefits (vacation, holidays, sick time, 401k matching, health insurance rates, etc) you currently get in the spreadsheet.  They usually add up to a number that is larger than most people think.

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