Report Shows Freelancers Have The Highest Average Hourly Rate, But There Is Much More To It

With all the technological advancements and shifting of work paradigms, there is a widespread understanding that the freelance economy is on the rise. People are preferring to work independently in order to balance their work and personal life in a better way, along with the fact that social media and online market places are giving them the opportunity to sell their work in a better way.

But with all being said, what is the current situation of the freelance market? To provide an in-depth analysis of the situation, Payoneer has come up with Freelance Income Report for 2020 and the key findings definitely include some of the very interesting insights that gives hope to budding freelancers as well.

Starting off with the earnings, freelancers around the world on average charge $21 per hour. This figure is way above the average hourly rate for salaried class and also is an increment over the hourly rate of $19 back in 2017. However, just like any other industry, the rates also vary according to the level of experience that a freelancer possesses. For instance, people who have spent years in a particular field and are now working independently at the age of 55 tend to earn more than their fellow freelancers who are just 18-24.



If you are wondering about knowing the fortunate people who earn this handsome amount, then almost 70% of the freelancers are under the age of 35, whereas 21% fall below the age group of 25. Deep diving into the statistics further, almost 82% of the young freelancers (under the age of 35), who were also respondents, have emerged from Asia and then comes North America with 47%.

But with all the money involved - and considering how workers prefer to go freelance at the start and end of their careers, no one really likes to commit to doing online work for a long time. Being a freelancer comes with its own risk of not getting stable paycheck all the time and job security, which eventually makes the workers shift to the corporate world in order to afford their lifestyle easily and families later.


These other factors also lead us to how committed a freelancer is, as those who work hard get a good hourly rate and remain content with their lifestyle. However, then again the perks of working independently doesn’t always mean that the freelancers experience the highest job-to-income satisfaction too.

"Till today, the gender pay gap remains a debated issue, especially within the freelance community.", claimed report.



A lot of freelancers do web and graphic designing work, followed by programming and IT, but since the market is very much saturated, most of the freelancers don’t get paid well. Hence, as contrary to that, professionals in administrative roles have the highest level of income satisfaction even with the lowest average hourly rate.



Two other major positives to come out of the report were; freelance earnings have nothing to do with whether the person is a graduate and how women have actively participated over the years more with female freelancers earning an average of 84% of men’s total income across all fields of freelancing.

For more details, you can go through the report here. But with all the statistics, highs and lows of the freelancing world, it all depends on you how you drive your career by working for others independently.

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