Re: How much should staffing agencies get above my hourly billable rate?

On 1/30/06, Larson Rider <[email protected]> wrote:


>
> BTW how would you feel about companies saying you can't make more than
> $45 an hour for your work?

It would depend on the assignment. 45/hour is reasonable for some assignments.

> If you don't like it then why do you think
> it's ok for a company to cap what an agency makes?

You seem to be presuming I wouldn't like that. But I do appreciate the
company stepping in and making sure that the consultant is not getting
his fair share of the pie.

I guess what I am getting at is
1 - the agency that contacts me has a clear understanding of the lump
rate that the company will pay per hour.
2 - the agency, instead of telling me this and how this will be
divvied up between me and them, starts with this line, almost all the
time: "How much would you take for this position?" And of course my
answer is: "As much as I can get, I will never be satisfied unless I
am getting 1 million or 2 (or 10!) per year for my work" And then they
reply, "Ok, but how much would you find acceptable for this?" And then
when I relent and give them a figure, they usually seem to try to bid
it down 5 or 10 dollars. For the hot yahoo position that's going
around, I agreed to 47/hour w-2. But a staffer just posted the same
position on the la perl mongers list for 55-60 per hour. So, my
feeling is the agencies sometimes (a) don't put all the cards on the
table (b)  try to bid me down so that they can clear a higher margin.