Beatfreeks is committed to being an “awesome place to work” and that includes our sessionals and Associates as much as it does our staff. We understand, as young professionals ourselves, the pressure on freelancers and sessional workers to sustain themselves and their practice.
We were delighted to receive over 25 responses to our recent Pay Review to understand expectations of freelance artists and facilitators in Birmingham to share with our wider partners too.
The average amount expected per hour for a freelance facilitator was £24.75. Most people preferred to be paid in half and full days rather than hourly unless the project was weekly over a longer period of time. The average rate per half day expected was £76.50 and for a full day was £165. The expectations around earning for a ‘young leader’ working on a project was £100 per day.
Feedback also showed that travel should be factored as an additional cost into the work. Basic planning was assumed to be in the paid, additional work should be costed at an administration fee of average £10 per hour.
Beatfreeks currently pays £20 per hour to young, emerging practitioners (less than 4 years of experience) and as a result of this review, will be increasing our pay rate to £25 per hour and travel expenses on top our fees. For experienced artists (4 years plus), we will continue to work on bespoke fees and be as transparent as possible in our fee structures. After a growth spurt a year ago, we were getting quite slow on managing payments. We’re extremely pleased to hear 100% of respondents were happier with our payment terms and systems.
We were interested to hear that our Associates looked to us for a guidance and advocacy role; understanding how to price work, how to construct invoices, how to chase up late payments etc. Although we cover this in our Train the Trainer programme, we’re aware that we haven’t run one in over a year so we will be creating a mini resource section on our website with guidance links and downloadable templates. We hope it will support young practitioners to get systems and processes in place to do what they really love best – the work!
We will continue to review our pay scales and benefits annually and have created space all year round to hear your feedback, concerns and ideas at beatfreeks.com/feedback.
Have we handled this well or not so well? Tell us at info@beatfreeks.com or submit anonymous feedback here.