Does your wage go up/down when a contract becomes permanent?

Olajuwon

It always goes down from what I have heard but a few insights from the users who have gone through this before would enlighten me.
They tend to decrease it after adding benefits, right?

garv221

Olajuwon wrote:

It always goes down from what I have heard but a few insights from the users who have gone through this before would enlighten me.
They tend to decrease it after adding benefits, right?

I'm not sure on less pay, that would be tough to swallow. I have heard contract employees getting more money when hired full time than the employment agency was paying them. Employment agencies charge like $25.00/hr to a company and pay the employee $10.00/hr.

Olajuwon

Yeah, I forgot about that. Good point!

RTmarc

I've heard of places paying a contractor less and giving them a raise when they go full time. One guy I talked with said that he would not pay a contractor as much because he had been burned by people who would stay contractor and not come on full time when offered. They were stuck paying a lot higher wage.

Trailerisf

Why would a company want a contractor to become an employee??? They would be stuck paying benefits and unemployment insurance, vacation pay... etc etc...

Only reason would be for them to save money. Ie. lowering wage.

keenon

not really, it usually will go up or stay the same.. majority of the time it goes up.. remember it costs them more for u to be a contractor b/c they are paying the staffing company a premium ex. firm pays u 25hr. client pays then 50hr.. u do the math

garv221

Trailerisf wrote:

Why would a company want a contractor to become an employee??? They would be stuck paying benefits and unemployment insurance, vacation pay... etc etc...

Only reason would be for them to save money. Ie. lowering wage.

Alot of companies use contract employees b/c they are not quit certain what a position will detail or how long they will need to employ that position. Alot of their decisions are based upon the actual employee and how useful they can be. The companies use an employment agency to feel these employees out, when they find one they like, they hire them. The companies tend to give the new employee a small rasie from the agency's pay but also save a great deal of money even with benifits becasue of the huge cost the agency charges.

Olajuwon

Yesterday, I asked my co-worker who got hired after contracting for our company and he said that his wage actually went down.

keenon

Olajuwon wrote:

Yesterday, I asked my co-worker who got hired after contracting for our company and he said that his wage actually went down.

horrible negotiator

garv221

keenon wrote:

Olajuwon wrote:

Yesterday, I asked my co-worker who got hired after contracting for our company and he said that his wage actually went down.

horrible negotiator

lol. What a push over. I bet someone took his red stapler too.

Trailerisf

keenon wrote:

Olajuwon wrote:

Yesterday, I asked my co-worker who got hired after contracting for our company and he said that his wage actually went down.

horrible negotiator

Not really... its common. No budget means no increase.

garv221

I could maybe see that for admistrative/secretary postions but for someone skilled; companies have a budget for them.

PCHoldmann

One thing to remember is benefits. When I got hired at my current job, my pay went down very slightly, but the benefits made up several times that.

Peter

Trailerisf

garv221 wrote:

I could maybe see that for admistrative/secretary postions but for someone skilled; companies have a budget for them.

Budget is a Budget

mikey_b

Well I just went through a contractor - full time conversion in April. I started 3 years ago at $15/hour, then $18/hour after a year and a half, then $19.70/hour after another 6 months. My hiring rate was $45,000/year, which is closer to $21.60/hour, which is a decent increase, and the company pays all benefits and whatnot, so it worked out quite favorably for me.

I have heard otherwise, though...

Olajuwon

mikey_b wrote:

Well I just went through a contractor - full time conversion in April. I started 3 years ago at $15/hour, then $18/hour after a year and a half, then $19.70/hour after another 6 months. My hiring rate was $45,000/year, which is closer to $21.60/hour, which is a decent increase, and the company pays all benefits and whatnot, so it worked out quite favorably for me.

I have heard otherwise, though...

So, you contracted for 3 yrs at the same company before being hired directly? That's tough.

mikey_b

Olajuwon wrote:

mikey_b wrote:

Well I just went through a contractor - full time conversion in April. I started 3 years ago at $15/hour, then $18/hour after a year and a half, then $19.70/hour after another 6 months. My hiring rate was $45,000/year, which is closer to $21.60/hour, which is a decent increase, and the company pays all benefits and whatnot, so it worked out quite favorably for me.

I have heard otherwise, though...

So, you contracted for 3 yrs at the same company before being hired directly? That's tough.

It was hit and miss, let me tell you! I had just bought a house and was recently engaged. I got a job as a support manager with another firm so I quit my Help Desk job, but I hated the new job so much I quit and the next day a large IT firm called and offered me a contract for 8 weeks to deploy new computers. I went to a staffing firm to draft up a contract and got screwed over, they never took off any taxes or anything and frequently payed me late by as much as a month! But I earned my keep at the new company and they kept me on another 8 weeks, then I was doing on site support for another 3 months. I switched to another staffing firm which offered me slightly more and a 6 month contract, which kept getting renewed until the beginning of this year when my full time offer came in, along with promotion to Systems Administrator and Technical Leader of the field services team in Manitoba. It way have been 3 years of hit and miss, but now I'm right where I want to be - systems administration and leadership rolled in to one convenient package with enough responsibility to keep me happy.