Consultant pay rates slip 8 per cent

Things might be looking up for the UK' freelance consultants, but the pay they charge for their services has fallen by an average of 8 per cent, a sector report reveals.

Having surveyed more than 40,000 independent professionals, Skillfair said their typical fee in 2009 stood at £523 a day, down from £565 a day in the previous year.

Given the state of the jobs market as a whole, the pay reading suggests clients are "still prepared to pay realistic rates" for contract skills, the staffing group said.

It also claimed that the rate reduction was partly due to a growing number of freelancers working through agencies, where take-home pay was estimated to be 15 per cent lower.

But the main cause of rates slipping, and why "a lot of consultants" have "been asked to work for derisory rates," is the fragile economy, explained Skillfair founder Gill Hunt.

She told CUK: "Interestingly, they're quite comfortable with this if the client is in genuine need - but much less happy if they think [it is solely due to] an agency protecting their margins by passing on all the pressure."

According to Skillfair's survey, nine out of ten contract professionals expect pay rates to stay the same or increase in 2010, indicating the bulk of the pay cuts have been introduced already.

The contractors who have seen their daily rates dip the least work in change management and other high level consultancy roles, including telecoms, engineering and IT management.

In contrast, consultants supplying financial services and retail clients have been the hardest hit, the findings show, with similar but less marked pay cuts for those providing IT solutions, IT project management and IT infrastructure services.

Daily rates for freelance researchers, writers, editors, graphic designers and PR practitioners have also fallen, and for some roles were even withdrawn in favour of requests to work 'pro bono.'