How much should I charge?

[Lauren88]

I need some advice... I've been offered a small part-time editing/teaching job with a US multinational here in Beijing, and, as the boss put it, they need to know "how much I cost." The truth is, I have no idea what an approx. hourly rate would be for something like this. Basically, 3 - 5 Chinese employees who will each get 2 hours a week of my time, where I will work with them one-on-one to improve their English report/business writing skills. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[roddy]

I think you've got scope to choose your own number here - it's a foreign company, they are asking you for a price rather than setting one, and one-to-one business writing stuff should definitely be at the higher-end of the payscale.

Not done any teaching work for some time, so I'm not sure of a reasonable figure. I did a very similar job for an embassy (with their local Chinese staff) about three years ago and at the time charged 250Y per hour - I could probably have got more but this was in the middle of SARS and there wasn't exactly a huge amount of work on offer then. Nowadays, I'd say ask for 350-400Y and see how pale they turn. At that rate though, you should be doing tailored stuff for each student.