Is anyone experiencing lower freelance rate offers? We’re hearing that with all of the recent layoffs there are a lot more freelancers in the fashion industry and the competition is pushing hourly and day rates down. Thoughts?
One of the reasons that rates are going down is that a lot of corporations are only hiring on 3-month temporary contracts, and the cost to the corporation is of course lower than hiring someone full time with benefits. What they also get with the 3-month contract is less accountability and it’s hard to build good systems and teams if all the players are essentially temporary. Yet another race to the bottom.
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I had a feeling that would happen. NYC hiring companies dont see the value. the NYC industry is a fractured industry, at this point you are making more as a manager in retail or at a restaurant. Hourly rates for apparel development and design raking from $25 to $40, 40 if you’re lucky in nyc. I think this freelance platform would work best if there was an incentive and realistic range to show hiring nyc companies the value but there isn’t so it’s a free for all and staffing NYC agencies are the same, I got contacted for a Manager position 5 days and the rate was a slap on the face. I am pivoting out of fashion as it’s a dead end in NYC, unless you relocate to another state.
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Thats been my experience too
I’m seeing it across the industry. Nobull laid off some higher level roles over the last few months and are now hiring interns at $18 an hour to back fill. I saw a Clarks role that in Boston that in any other industry would pay $100K+ per year. They are offering around $60K.
Yes, I absolutely have. It feels like a real slap in the face. At one time, I could easily get the hourly rate I asked for, and now I’m often being offered entry-level rates, and when I write back to negotiate they will only move $1 or 2. I completely understand these companies want to reduce headcount and thus what they’re paying out for benefits (and yes, tariffs, supply chain sticky prices), but the lower hourly rates are just them being greedy.