Freelancing provides a reliable source of income with flexibility to the self-employed, those who are not part of a large organisation or for a person unable to work full time. This also provide a platform for unemployed youths and married women with small children to make an earning and thereby increasing inclusive growth.
Payoneer, a financial services business that provides online money transfer and e-commerce payment services recently conducted a study among freelancers within 180 countries. Objective was to determine the average hourly rates charged by freelancers based on several factors. Payoneer’s Survey results were collected from the responses of 23,006 freelancers worldwide through an online questionnaire during November and December 2014.
Respondents representing a diversified range of countries with a primary focus on emerging markets such as Asia, Latin America and Europe. The sample included the freelancers with earnings between $1 as the lowest and $100 as the highest hourly rate.
Study reveals interesting insights in terms of profile of freelancers’, slightly over three quarters of respondents are male (78%) while (22%) are female. Over half of the respondents are between the age group of 20-29 and 85% of freelancers surveyed are in their 20 -39. In addition 55% of those surveyed are university graduates, while 45% completed high school.
The freelancers earned an average hourly rate of $21 across all the 180 countries surveyed. Almost half of freelancers charge under $10 an hour for their work and 18% command over $30 per hour. Freelancers work an average of 36 hours per week (7.2 hours per day for a 5-day work week). The range varied in terms of number of hours worked as the sample include both full-time freelancers and professional working part time. Freelancers from Sri Lanka average about 35.7 hours per week standing 10th in the list which covers about 180 countries and it is on par with the global average of 36 hours. Kenya is on the top of the list with 42.6 hours a week.
Most importantly, the study also highlighted that the Level of education does not have a direct correlation to charging a higher rates for freelance jobs.
Click here for Full report : The Payoneer Freelancer Income Survey 2015.
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