Average Hourly Rate Insights (2024): Freelancers & Consultants

If you’re a freelancer or consultant, some of the most important questions on your mind might be “How much should I charge per hour?” and “Can I make money freelancing or consulting?”

To help you make a more informed decision, in this guide, we have listed the average hourly rates for:

• Different industries,
• Locations, and
• Skill and experience levels.

Average hourly rates of freelancers: general figures

According to FreelancerMap’s Freelancer Study 2023, the average hourly rate of freelancers across the world is $104.17 (€96). The study that collated data from 101 countries found that 31% of freelancers make between $81.37 (€75) and $107.41 (€99) per hour.

On the other hand, Payoneer’s 2023 survey, which covered 122 countries and over 2,000 freelancers around the world, found that freelancer rates range between $22 and $24 per hour. As a matter of fact, women freelancers have an average rate of $22, while their male counterparts earn $24 per hour.

In the US, freelancers earn an average hourly rate of $48, according to ZipRecruiter’s statistics, with a majority of rates ranging from $24.28 to $61.78.

But, these numbers depend on many factors that we will discuss next.

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What are the factors that impact hourly rates?

To understand how much your freelancing or consulting fees should be, we need to look at the factors that influence the average hourly rates you can use to charge for your services.

In the following sections, we will explore the most important factors that affect the market rate of freelancers and consultants including:

• Industry,
• Location,
• Skills and experience,
• Education, and
• Gender and age.

Hourly rate calculator

Average hourly rates by industry

Here are the average hourly rates across industries, according to the above-mentioned study by FreelancerMap which includes data from 101 countries.

Average hourly rate of $100 and above:

• Energy — $120 (€111),
• Banking and finance — $116 (€107),
• Industrial sector — $116 (€107),
• Insurance — $115 (€106),
• Telecommunications — $111 (€102),
• Healthcare/pharma — $110 (€101),
• Mechanical engineering — $109 (€100),
• Retail — $107 (€99),
• Automotive — $107 (€99),
• Public sector — $107 (€99),
• Other — $103 (€95), and
• Electronics — $100 (€92).

Average hourly rates between $90 and $99:

• Consulting — $99 (€91),
• IT/software — $98 (€90),
• Transport and logistics — $98 (€90),
• Aerospace — $98 (€90),
• Construction — $94 (€87), and
• Real estate — $90 (€83).

Average hourly rates between $60 and $89:

• Media — $89 (€82),
• Tourism — $74 (€68), and
• Education — $68 (€63).

Bear in mind that we used the following exchange rate — €1 = $1.09 — that was in effect on March 6th, 2024.

The FreelancerMap’s survey doesn’t cover any hourly rates below $60. According to the previously-mentioned Payoneer’s survey, here is the list of industries with hourly rates below $60.  

Average hourly rate below $60: 

• Multimedia production — $35,
• Programming — $28,
• Marketing — $28,
• Content writing — $26,
• Finance — $26,
• Project management — $26,
• Web and graphic design — $22,
• IT — $21,
• Sales — $20,
• Translation — $19,
• Administrative — $13,
• Customer support — $12, and
• Quality Assurance — $10.

To sum up, the most profitable field, according to FreelancerMap’s survey, is the energy sector, closely followed by banking, insurance, and industrial sectors. The least profitable industry is quality assurance, according to Payoneer’s report.

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Average hourly rates by location

The world region and country you’re living in are some of the biggest factors that influence the average hourly rates.

Hourly rates by world region

The average hourly rate, according to Payoneer, varies based on the world region.

With the average hourly rate of $56, North America has the highest number. On the other hand, Central America has the lowest average hourly rate — only $18.

In addition, the global average hourly rate is $23.

Hourly rates by country

Before determining how much to charge as a consultant or freelancer, you need to also look at how the average hourly rates vary by country.

For instance, these are the average hourly rates of graphic designers given by Payscale across different countries.

Note: The hourly rates in different countries may vary based on the current exchange rate for different currencies (for the data above, we used the exchange rate that was in effect on March 6th, 2024).

To give you some more examples of what the hourly rates look like for the same professions in different countries, we have collated the following data from Payscale.

Note: The hourly rates in different countries may vary based on the current exchange rate for different currencies (for the data above, we used the exchange rate that was in effect on March 6th, 2024).

Average hourly rates by skill level and years of experience

Skills and experience are a vital factor in determining freelance income. According to Payscale, here are the average hourly rates for different professionals across various experience levels. The following information applies to the US only.

Entry-level (less than 1 year of experience)

Entry-level professionals have less than or equal to 1 year of experience. As they lack extensive professional experience, their freelancing or consulting fees are typically lower.

Here are the average hourly rates for entry-level professionals in the US:

• Software developer — $25.47,
• Project manager — $22.02,
• Accountant — $19.60, and
• Content writer — $19.25.

Early-career (1-4 years of experience)

Early-career professionals usually have from 1 to 4 years of experience, and, on average, make the following figures:

• Software developer — $30.41,
• Project manager — $25.04,
• Content writer — $24.28, and
• Accountant — $21.68.

Mid-career (5-9 years of experience)

Mid-career professionals have 5 to 9 years of experience and make the following average figures:

• Software developer — $44.15,
• Project manager — $30.91,
• Content writer — $28.99, and
• Accountant — $24.25.

Experienced (10-19 years of experience)

Experienced professionals with 10-19 years of experience make the following figures on average for their services:

• Software developer — $55.44,
• Project manager — $36.28,
• Content writer — $34.13, and
• Accountant — $25.15.

Late-career (20+ years of experience)

Late-career professionals with 20 years of experience and higher possess significant experience and are typically in that stage of their life that leads to retirement. They make the following average figures:

• Software developer — $58.83,
• Content writer — $45.48,
• Project manager — $36.89, and
• Accountant — $26.02.

Is there a link between different types of skills and average hourly rates?

To put it short — yes, there is a link between different types of skills and average hourly rates. Since certain professions may involve a wide range of skills, average hourly rates can vary depending on the type of skill the professional offers.

To give you an example of how skill types can affect average hourly rates, here are the average hourly rates for graphic designers with different graphic design skills (the data we used in the example below is taken from the Payscale website and refers to the US only):

• Graphic designer with Adobe InDesign skills — $34.57,
• Graphic designer with branding skills — $33.52,
• Graphic designer with Adobe Illustrator skills — $31.69,
• Graphic designer with Adobe Photoshop skills — $30.34, and
• Graphic designer with social media marketing skills — $27.96.

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Average hourly rates by education

Education is an important factor to consider when pricing consulting services. Academic qualification is also a priority for potential clients who are looking to hire a freelancer.

However, the most recent Payoneer report shows that freelancers with secondary education earn slightly more than those with a Bachelor’s degree.

College makes a significant difference at the later stages of your education — freelancers with post-graduate degree command higher hourly rates than other freelancers:

• Post-graduate degree — $27,
• Graduated secondary education — $23, and
• Bachelor’s degree — $22.

When it comes to those freelancers with no secondary education, we do not have accurate information on what’s the average hourly rate they use to bill for their services.

Average hourly rates by gender and age

According to different studies, the gender pay gap, unfortunately, continues to persist — men still outearn women in most world regions. 

Here are the average hourly rates of men and women in different world regions according to Payoneer’s Freelancer Income Report 2022.

What’s interesting is that, although in most world regions men earn more than women per hour on average, the situation is different in South America where women have higher average hourly rates than men.

As the report from 2022 also states, compared to men’s average hourly rate of $28, women were making $23/hour on average.

According to Payoneer’s report from 2023, the average hourly rate for men is $24/hour while women are paid $22 per hour on average. This shows that the gender pay gap still exists — though it is slightly smaller compared to data from 2022.

Furthermore, the gender pay gap varies based on the age of freelancers.

Use Clockify to track billable hours and calculate your earnings 

To calculate how much you should charge your client for a particular project you’ve worked on, you’ll need to define your hourly rates and track your billable hours.

For that reason, Clockify lets you track how much time you spend working on projects and automatically calculates your earnings based on your hourly rates.

You can set an hourly rate before you start tracking time for your new project or apply the rate for all past and future time entries.

Setting hourly billable rates in Clockify

Once your project is complete, you can view the total billable hours and your earnings for each project.

Clockify automatically calculates your billable hours and total earnings

This way, you can ensure accurate invoicing that reflects the true intricacy of each project component.

Elevate your freelance game by managing billable hours and tracking time seamlessly!

Create your free Clockify account now.