by Leo Wiles
23 September 2016
Sex, drugs, politics… as journos, we have no fear in discussing (let alone writing) about these issues. However, when it comes to how much money we make, most of us suddenly become very interested in studying the floor. So thank you again to those of you who overcame survey saturation and discussed how much bacon you bring home in our 2015/16 Show Us The Money survey. And, following on from Rach’s post about the debate over average word rates or hourly rates freelancers are getting, I wanted to provide some perspective on annual incomes, too.
A staggering half of respondents described themselves as part-time, citing reasons such as moonlighting after a day in the office, splitting their week between a bread and butter job and working at home. It also included those of us juggling children and work. All up 38 percent work 1-2 days / week, 34 percent work 2-3 days / week and 27 percent work 3-4 days / week.
We asked what part-timers earned before tax. As you can see in the results above, it’s all over the shop, ranging from less than $5k (15 percent), less than $15k (also 15 percent) and ranging between $25-30k for 10 percent of you. Not surprisingly, nearly 38 percent of part-timers said their satisfaction fluctuated with their earnings and a resounding 42.14 percent were unhappy with how much money they made.
That being said, in the comments section there was a lot of self-reflection about ‘building a better monthly average’ and ‘dedicating more time so I could earn more’ – a cross section of other comments follows.
“My pay differs vastly – per article, per word, with photos, plus photos and I’m a hopeless negotiator. I’d really like someone to do that part of the job for me – like a business manager.”
“I try to negotiate my hourly rate at a level that will carry me through the very lean times.”
“I am looking to build a better monthly average.”
“I’m happy with [the money I earn] as a “side gig” but I’d like to increase it.”
“I want to learn how to be more efficient with what I earn and plan a bit better – [which is why I am] going to do a business course for sole traders.”
“I feel like the rates are generally getting worse but then I do more for websites and content marketing agencies than I used to and generally they don’t pay as well.”
“I’ve had one or two bad years, but that had the bonus of lots of free time!”
“There’s only been one year where I earned less than when I worked full-time in house. In my industry (book publishing), freelancing is a much, much better deal financially, as long as you can keep enough clients.”
“My writing income has been increasing over the last couple of years, mainly due to gaining a few regular gigs and writing for better-paying markets.”
“I’ve just moved to Melbourne from Sydney so still trying to build up networks and find permanent part time work to subsidise the freelance work I do.”
“I haven’t really concentrated on searching out new clients in the past nine months due to concentrating on changing career options outlined above – that’s why I’m not unhappy with income. This was always going to be the year I decided whether to continue on with editorial work so the plan is on track for me.”
“I don’t dedicate enough time to this so I know I could earn more…”
“Right now this suits – but I’ll want to add to this in the next year.”
On the flipside, those freelancers who described themselves as full-time, worked, on average, 30-40 hours / week (37.5 percent), 30 hours or less (25.69 percent) or 40-50 hours / week (24.31 percent). Just 1.39 percent worked more than 70 hours a week! A handful of those who answered this question admitted that even though they see themselves as full-time, a lot of their workload is quite fluid, driven by supply and demand. Some insights from the comments:
“Sometimes I spend 40-odd hours working, sometimes it’s five hours/week hustling.”
“[I work full time] plus admin hours, [doing my] Tax, invoicing, job hunting, website maintenance etc.”
“Can depend on clients’ needs and deadlines.”
“It really depends upon the workload of the week.”
“I’m still trying to build on my clients.”
“I’ve selected full-time freelancer because I don’t do anything else but I probably don’t spend all my time on it.”
“My work fluctuates very wildly, and I sometimes work on intense projects that require being overseas or interstate for periods of time. So one week I might work 80 hours, then the next – none!”
While some declined to share their bottom line, 9.5 percent of respondents revealed that before tax they’d earnt over $100K, although one admitted that ‘these days it’s much harder now to earn as much’. Others had the following insights to add.
“In a good year, I can turn over around $120K, but there have been a few quiet years. At the moment it is closer to $40K.”
“The past 2 years I have been at uni so I have had a few long breaks in between jobs. If working more I’d be in the $50-60k range.”
“I am very busy but often for little pay and have several proposals on hold: I find potential clients have ideas about what they want to do and then back off from pursuing those ideas.”
Interesting stuff… and sobering, especially for those of us who used to find it much easier to make a decent living. Meanwhile in the interest of full disclosure in 2014 we had 2,000 members and a vigorous response to our survey. Even though we offered more prizes and a longer time to respond with double the number of talented creative on our books in 2015… we ended up with a smaller survey sample size. Survey saturation? We can’t help but think it plays a part, when you consider the ambivalence towards the recent Census and the fact that every time you ring Telstra, Virgin, Foxtel [insert utility company here] you’re asked to answer a survey! But also, it’s tricky get people to talk about money…
If you’re keen, now’s your chance to have your say about your income, or better still some tips on how to better it.
