Hourly vs Salary | Imamother

amother

Aqua

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 1:30 pm

Ok I hope this makes sense:

I am a school based therapist and I get paid per session. A school approached me and asked if they could hire me as part of their staff with a salary. They asked me what type of salary would be worth it for me to take the job (because giving them the time would mean that I can’t take as many cases on my own time). They also told me that obviously they would love to hire me but it has to be financially viable. What’s the best way to “convert” hourly pay to a salary?

If I were to just take my typical pay and multiply it by the hours needed x 40 weeks of school, the number really is pretty unreasonable. In reality, there are many vacation days, sick days, etc and I really don’t consistently make that full amount. Also, I’m sure it won’t be financially doable for the school. How should I calculate a salary?

Let’s imagine my pay was $100/hr and they want 10 hours each week 100 x 10 x 40 = 40K salary for a VERY part time worker. To me this seems too greedy and unreasonable to ask. What do you think? How should I figure this?

Please help me out Smile

(I do want to take the job because it would be a real relief to be on salary and know how much money is coming in every month! Also, my caseload is never guaranteed and it’s not definite that I would fill up the time I am committing to this school. )

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 1:49 pm

I'm not in your field, so I don't know the numbers, but a salaried job with benefits (paid time off, health insurance, etc) will typically pay less per hour than a per diem or per service type hourly job with no benefits, but it may be worth the trade-off. Check salary.com, Glassdoor and Indeed for an idea of the typical numbers in your industry and location.

amother

Aqua

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 3:25 pm

To clarify a few things:

1) I am definitely hoping to take it! That’s not even a question!

2) It is very part time (in the 10 hours a week range) so no insurance etc, but I’m assuming there will be a few paid sick days.

3) they want me to name a salary and they will see if they can match it. That is the essence of my question - what amount do I ask? The sample numbers I gave are very near to reality. If the numbers were $100/hr, 10 hrs/week, for the duration of a school year, what salary should I request?? I explained in my op why it’s not reasonable to just multiply all the numbers together.

Cookiegirl

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 3:57 pm

Remember that your approximate $100 per hour salary is a "gross" number, and you actually clear at least 15.3% less due to the fact that you are responsible for your own payroll taxes. That $100 per hour also should be stretched a bit to cover the travel time to those appointments at the school, so your "real" hourly payrate is lower than $100. While you will still need to travel, you will not need to pay about half of the payroll taxes that you are currently responsible for.

As an HR person who has converted hourly to salary employees in the past, I would give you my "gut feel" recommendation that you should probably discount your usual hourly fee by about 20-25% for a guaranteed steady part time opportunity. If you were eligible for benefits, I would suggest a bigger "discount" but since you will be only part time, the school's costs are not as great in that regard, and you have to "cover" your own time when the school is closed, or when you go on vacation.

I hope this is helpful...

amother

Periwinkle

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 3:59 pm

amother wrote:

If you didn't take this job - would you actually be working those 10 hours? Are you giving up $40,000 of income.. Have you been fully booked - working 40 hours per week - 'billable time'?

Because if the thats true - you go to the school and say - I'm giving up $40,000 per year on those 10 hours a week if I work for you - but I know its not guaranteed, plus you offer me other perks (like less moving around, and no billing) - so I'm willing to give up my $40,000 per year to work for you - the stability and lack of billing are worth $10,000 to me... So I'm asking for $30,000.

(if you aren't currently working 40 hours a week - then you aren't giving up on 40,000 a year of self employment to do this).

Where is the money coming from to cover your salary at the school? The pool of money from tuition - or can the school get extra money from parents/insurance/government funding?

amother

Aqua

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 4:12 pm

Cookiegirl wrote:

This was extremely helpful thank you! Exactly what I was looking for!
I was thinking similar but really it was baseless, this makes sense to me!

amother

Aqua

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 4:18 pm

amother wrote:

I’m not sure if I would be working all those specific hours, I can’t say for sure because every year I build a new caseload. I definitely would be working some of it though!

I like the idea of asking for other benefits if I take a lower pay scale (maybe discounted insurance, 25% tuition break for my children’s tuition, etc).

I don’t know where the money is coming from. It is a private Frum school in my neighborhood and I’m positive this is not through government funding. I’m assuming it is part of their yearly budget...

amother

Aqua

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 4:36 pm

amother wrote:

Do you really make a 100 an hour or did you round up quite a bit?

For a similar job offer of 16 hours a week I was offered 38k for the year.

I actually rounded down. I have a private practice and this is all out of pocket pay for the parents (I’m out of town and there is little to no coverage for therapies here).

amother

Periwinkle

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 5:51 pm

amother wrote:

Goes back to my initial question - what were you actually earning a year. So look at 5 years worth of income. Figure out the average then divide over number of potential working hours in a year - to figure out what your real hourly income was for full time work.

Then you have a better idea of what average potential are giving up to work at the school. (This assumes that your caseload is evenly spread throughout the day. if the school is offering you to work during hours you have historically been less busy - the calculation changes again).

amother

Seafoam

Thu, Apr 04 2019, 6:19 pm

amother wrote:

I actually rounded down. I have a private practice and this is all out of pocket pay for the parents (I’m out of town and there is little to no coverage for therapies here).

Oh I see. School based therapy pays less then so it’s harder to compare to what you make now.