My side gig is working as a teacher for a major test prep provider (think: SAT, ACT, etc. for those of you in the US). My typical rate is 30/hr for teaching time, and 12/hr for time spent proctoring tests. The usual break-down is:
| Type of Work | | Number of Hours per 10 session class | | Hourly Rate | | Total Pay |
| Teaching | 18 | 30 | 540 |
| Proctoring | 20.5 | 12 | 246 |
| | | 786 |
I got an email this morning from my manager asking if I could jump into a class starting this weekend that the original teacher backed out on. The class fit my schedule perfectly (and I was actually looking for some extra hours) - sweet! I was going to accept, but I remembered the teachings of
Remit Sethi's I Will Teach You To Be Rich:
always negotiate. Thus I asked my manager to give me an incentivized rate because of the late notice.
I knew they didn't have anyone else to take the class, so this made me a bit bold. When asked what rate I'd like to charge, I asked for 1.5x my teaching rate (so $45/hr to teach). I had to talk myself into asking for this much for over an hour before I actually had the balls to hit send. My manager didn't reply for a few hours, so I was basically sweating bullets. She just got back to me and offered me:
$50/hr for teaching time
and a raise to $32/hr for proctoring time as a thank you for accepting on such short notice!! That simple request (which I never would have done prior to watching IWT) just allowed me to nearly double my effective payout for the same job!
| Type of Work | | Number of Hours per 10 session class | | Hourly Rate | | Total Pay |
| Teaching | 18 | 50 | 900 |
| Proctoring | 20.5 | 32 | 656 |
| | | $1556 |
WAHOO!
