NukeWorker Forum
Career Path => Money Matters => Salary Questions => Topic started by: z.james37 on Dec 12, 2012, 04:27
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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
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.