What factors determine a graphic designer’s salary?

www.graphicdesignblog.org How much to charge clients is every  graphic designers concern. You charge excessively, they might not hire you. You bill them under-par, they might consider you as a cheap designer. For this reason, the perfect fee range should be determined beforehand. There comes in every graphic designer’s mind a question…Are we truly valued and paid? This query ensue a series of questions like ‘How much a graphic designer should be paid?’ and ’On what criteria should he be paid?’ Although I have always advocated that the graphic design field is for the sheer pleasure and obsession of it. But then again, an individual has to make ends meet as well.

Factors that determine a graphic designer’s fee:

1) Experience and Creativity: The first thing that clients see in a graphic designer is the level of experience he possesses in his particular field of work. Many corporate clients avoid hiring amateurs to do their graphic design projects. But clients with a low resource base also hire graphic designers with little experience and exposure. The magnitude of experience and the level of creativity of graphic designers really speak volumes for the money they charge.

2) Size of the Project: Another important factor that evaluates your remuneration is the size and magnitude of the graphic design project. The type, scale and magnitude of the assignment you are working on are essential in determining how much you should be charging. Since, for graphic designers, time is money. Although there are some clients who value money over quality, a graphic designer should never compromise on his quality of work.

3) Area and location you work in: The area, region and place you are working count a lot in determining how much you can charge your clients. Just to give you a rough idea of how graphic designer salaries fluctuate from state to state and within city, the designer working in Los Angeles CA is likely to earn dissimilar to a designer working in Detroit MI. Graphic Design Salary Calculator, where salary data is taken from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey Program. This is because client’s ability to pay varies from state to state.

4) Fixed or Flexible charges: Another aspect of charging a client is whether you will be charging a fixed fee or charging on an hourly basis? This is usually imperative when you are deciding whether to work part-time or full-time. Normally graphic designers working part-time charge on an hourly basis since they do not have any fixed working timings. On the other extreme, full-time graphic designers who work 9-5 generally charge a fixed remuneration.

5)Miscellaneous expenditures incurred: Apart from the standard expenditure and costs of a graphic design project, there are certain variable overhead expenditures incurred as well. For example the printing costs that incur when the client asks for numerous reruns of the design project. Then there is the travelling cost for clients who are reluctant to visit the designer and insist on calling them over. Hence a designer has to keep all variable expenditures in consideration before charging their clients.

Being a graphic designer, do you think you are getting what you are worth?