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Fixed Salary for Freelancers: Is It Worth It?

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 07:19 AM PDT

I keep on finding more and more Filipino freelancers who are willing to get paid with a regular wage each month doing freelance work long term. Usually, there isn’t any written deal – the arrangement is that they get to have fixed payments every month regardless whether the freelancer had performed work or not. There isn’t any defined job scope: the client is free to throw in any work to the hired freelancer.

I am talking about getting jobs directly from clients and not from freelance sites such as oDesk and Elance.

At first glance one visible advantage of being a regular salaried freelancer is that they are given “guaranteed income” for several months to a few years. The “guaranteed income” that I mention here usually does not involve written agreement to bind the freelancer to the client legally. More often, the freelancer usually get freebies, such as several books, licensed software and even a computer from the client – to learn new skills required for the job.

I haven’t tried any of those fixed salary arrangements; I’ve always preferred working by the hour or set fixed priced rates with an agreed scope of job. I think that arrangement is fair for both clients and freelancers: in hourly work, clients get billed only for work, while freelancers get paid only when they do work; in fixed priced jobs, clients get work done for what is agreed, while freelancers get to work only at the agreed scope. I think this arrangement is fair and protects the interest of both parties.

On the other hand, a salaried freelancer, whether full time or part time, puts the freelancer at the mercy of the client. The client thinks that he can just throw any amount of work to the freelancer to get more out of the monthly billing. The freelancer may soon realize that he should raise his rates, but could not easily do so because he feels he is indebted to the client – will all the payout and freebies that he got for the work.

Besides that, I think this salaried freelancer feels like he is an employee than a freelancer.

Right now, I had tried to make deals with potential freelancers to convert their monthly salary arrangements to fixed prices.

For as long as there are freelancers who are willing to accept salaried arrangements, it may be possible that there might be time when this practice becomes the norm. Pursuing a freelance career may not be an attractive option anymore.

Are you one of those freelancers who are willing to get paid monthly regardless of the work volume? If so, are you satisfied with the arrangement or do you have regrets in accepting these offers?