Hourly vs Salary

A trend we’re noticing in our office indicates a seismic shift may be occurring in the manner in which consults are compensated. This is worth taking note.

Whereas the FTE (employee) on the project team is invariably a salaried employee – and therefore expected to work as many hours as necessary to complete the project at hand with no pay for hours considered ‘overtime’ – consultants have always billed on an hourly basis and have usually been paid for every hour they work.

Increasingly we have noticed client corporations requesting that consultants work on a ‘set fee’ basis, or on a salary. This could prove a big hit to the bottom line for many consultants, especially those who have historically worked lots of over-40 hours on implementations or production support.

Be aware, if you are unwilling to work under these constraints you may be limiting the clients you can work for. Keep this in mind when speaking with recruiters.