Everything you need to know about freelance day rates

If you read this blog post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about day rates, including who uses them, why freelancers use them, when to use one, and how to calculate a day rate for yourself.

What is a day rate?

Day rates are fixed rates that freelancers charge their clients to pay for one day’s worth of work, with a limited number of hours. For example, a camera operator might charge a video production company a $1,000 day rate to operate a camera on their shoot for up to 12 hours. If the shoot is less than 12 hours, the production company still pays the full $1,000 day rate. If the shoot goes over 12 hours, the camera operator could charge the production company for overtime. 

Who uses day rates? 

A lot of freelancers use day rates. They’re very common on production jobs, like commercials, show, photoshoots, and films. Other freelancers will use day rates, too, like graphic designers or motion animators when they work with creative agencies. 

When should I use a day rate? 

Day rates make sense to use when someone wants to hire you for their project to work within a specific set of days, doing a specific task. For example, if a brand hires an ad agency to make them a commercial, then that ad agency hires a cinematographer to shoot that commercial on specific days, the cinematographer would charge the agency a day rate. Usually, whoever is working directly with the client charges a “project rate.” If you’re not working directly with the client, and you’re only hired by a “middle-man” to work on specific days, then you would charge a day rate. 

When shouldn’t I use a day rate? 

Day rates usually don’t make sense when someone is trying to hire you to complete an entire project for them. If a project has flexible days and a flexible working schedule, it makes more sense to quote someone a “project rate” that accounts for all the time, vendors, expenses, risk, and opportunity at play to complete the project. 

Why do people use day rates?

The main benefit of day rates is that they’re simple and efficient. They also lead to higher-quality work. Instead of a freelancer tracking all their hours on a job, prorated down to the minute, they can just send one day rate. It’s also simpler for the company hiring the freelancer—they know their costs up front. Day rates lead to higher-quality work, because with hourly rates, freelancers are incentivized to work slowly, and companies are incentivized to work as fast as possible. Day rates set a precedent that everyone has the same goal: to make the best thing possible in the time they have. 

What do freelance day rates include? What kind of add-ons can I charge?

Freelance day rates include labor only. They don’t include gear, travel, meals, or other associated costs with the job. Sometimes a project requires you to prepare or bring a few extra things for a shoot day. The most common add-ons are gear, meals, and travel. 

Gear

If you need a package of standard gear in order to render your services (like audio equipment, a camera, or a makeup kit), then you can charge a “kit fee.” A kit fee is a small fee (usually between $50-$250 each day, depending on the gear) that covers wear and tear, plus some expendable items. If it’s really small, you can waive your kit fee, or bake it into your day rate. Kit fees generally only apply to production jobs, or jobs with genuine change for wear and tear. So if you’re a graphic designer, you wouldn’t charge a kit fee for your laptop, or standard software. 

If you need a lot of extra gear that isn’t in your standard kit, you can either rent this and bill it separately to your client, or let you client know what’s needed and have them provide the gear you need.

Meals

If you’re working on a full day rate on-set for someone, they should at least provide you with a lunch, a short lunch break, and some snacks. Many full-day productions will provide two or three meals for the crew. If you’re working from home, you don’t charge for meals or ask for them. 

Travel

Driving to work isn’t a tax write-off, and normal jobs don’t reimburse for it. So if your day rate gig is less than an hour drive away, you wouldn’t charge for gas or travel time. But, if you’re driving more than an hour to a day rate job, or if you’re driving between multiple locations for the job, you can charge your client for milage. If you have to travel to a gig a day before the job, you can charge a rate for the travel day (usually half of your day rate, but sometimes the full day rate). 

How do I set my own day rates?

If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, the first step is to make sure you’re making at least minimum wage. For a 12-hour day in California, that would be about $200 / day. Anything less than this borders on being illegal. 

Second, ask yourself what number would get you excited. When I started out as a freelancer, I was happy to be making $200 / day. Eventually, that number will feel normal to you, you’ll start saying to yourself “I wish I was making a $350 day rate” (or $500, or $750 or $1,200 rate). If your day rate gets you excited, that’s a good sign that you’ll be able to show up with a great attitude, ready to work hard and go the extra mile to deliver results. 

Third, test your rates against the market. Do some research. Ask some friends. Sometimes the best way to raise your day rates is to ask your industry friends, and realize you’ve been charging way too little this whole time! 

(If you want to see what day rates I pay vendors my productions, go download my free production budget template here.)

What are the pros and cons of day rates? 

Day rates are great because they set a precedent that if you’re working, you’re getting paid. As long as you’re happy with the day rates you’re making, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll be getting paid well for the work you do. 

Day rates leave some money on the table if you work really fast. If you have the ability to deliver a high-quality project within just a few days, or even a few hours, you shouldn’t make less money for that. In these cases, it’s better to charge based on the deliverables or the project instead of on day rates. 

However, freelance projects often get out of hand. The client asks for things that are out of scope, the freelancer says “yes,” then they spend more and more hours working on the project, and the project becomes less profitable because of that. We’ve all been there. A day rate protects you from this. 

How can I learn more? 

Day rates are one piece of the freelance puzzle. If you feel stumped by this puzzle sometimes, sign up for my weekly email list called Freelancers Only! Over 2,000 other smart freelancers already have. Every Tuesday at 2:00pm I’ll send you a short essay with practical strategies to help you freelance smarter and make more money. 

If you already signed up for that, you can also check out my book called What Gives You the Right to Freelance? Available in paperback on Amazon, as an audiobook, or on Kindle.