Ave Hourly Rate Paid ??

cjcornell · ‎01-12-2020

I've been a Upwork client for many years ... (9?) - and on the predecessors (elance and odesk) .. I haven't checked until today the "about the client" panel that freelancers see - with my total feedback rating etc.

For all this time - 95% of my jobs/contracts are fixed rate/milestones - coding. Only a few in the beginning were lower paying minor research or data entry jobs. But the upwork client page says:

$8.51/hr avg hourly rate paid / 762 hours

????

Absolutely wrong!!

I probably contracted under 50 hours of hourly work (and if memory serves - probably $10/hr average)

Here's my issue: aside from being terribly inaccurate - it sends the wrong message to developers looking at my job postings (all of which are fixed budget/ milestones)....

What's going on here?

what am i missing?

How can i correct this?

lysis10 · ‎01-12-2020

You're in luck. Freelancers with a brain and experience on the platform pay no attention to that number.

cjcornell · ‎01-12-2020

> Freelancers with a brain and experience on the platform pay no attention to that number.

Why wouldn't they?

even though 95% of my job posts are fixed price - seeing what I pay to others is some evidence of the level of expertise I am willing to pay for (I was a sw engineer for a long time, and did some consulting - so I have the same mindset).

When I vet freelancers who reply to my projects - even when it is fixed price, I scan their prior work and look at their prior contracts and hourly rates. It helps me get a sense of the level ... ie... someone who has been making $6 an hour coding probably is too junior for my project and someone who has been making $60 /hr (or $25,000 per contract) is going to be out of my price range - despite the fixed price.

So I would imagine many freelancers do the same with my projects, no?

m_sharman · ‎01-12-2020

CJ C wrote:
> Freelancers with a brain and experience on the platform pay no attention to that number.
Why wouldn't they?
even though 95% of my job posts are fixed price - seeing what I pay to others is some evidence of the level of expertise I am willing to pay for (I was a sw engineer for a long time, and did some consulting - so I have the same mindset).

I do look at it, but then I always review whatever is available in terms of client history. For instance, I'm a business writer and past projects may have no relationship to the services I offer. As with many things on Upwork, it's a misleading piece of information which requires additional due diligence.
The point I think Jen M was making is professional freelancers often do a bit of research before rejecting a potential client based on one piece of information.
Hope that helps...

petra_r · ‎01-13-2020

CJ C wrote:
> Freelancers with a brain and experience on the platform pay no attention to that number.
Why wouldn't they?
even though 95% of my job posts are fixed price - seeing what I pay to others is some evidence of the level of expertise I am willing to pay for

If they do, the difference between $ 8.50 and $ 10 is irrelevant, one is pretty much as low as the other in the overall scheme of things.

Personally, I am not to worried about the average paid unless I can see it was paid for people who do the same thing I do. In other words, if I see a client paying data entry people $ 8 or $ 10 an hour I am not concerned.

If they pay their translators that I don't look any further.

VladimirG · ‎01-13-2020

Apologies for the late follow-up, CJ. I went ahead and checked your transaction history, tallied up the number of hours you were billed for and it appears the number displayed on your job post is correct. I also divided the total number of hours with the total amount you were billed for across all Hourly contracts and got the same average hourly rate as displayed in the screenshot you shared.

Just to be sure, I asked our team to calculate the metrics again and share their findings with you directly. You can find their message and communicate any additional information on this support ticket.

~ Vladimir

cjcornell · ‎01-13-2020

I responded to the support ticket.

There's no way I did 762 hours (I am methodically a fixed price miletone kind of client).

I downloaded the CSV of all my contracts and summed up the hours and it turns out to be 181.4 hours, with no enough info in the csv to calculate an average rate ... which, again would still be misleading since the bulk of my contracts/payments are fixed price.

I suspect something went wrong - maybe during the merger mess with odesk and elance). Maybe.

Thanks for opening the support ticket!