Your number
$0
Your rate card
- Day rate$950 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- A retained search$10,625 per project
- Monthly retainera pipeline of roles worked$8,500 per month
- Commission on first-year salary20%
What to charge for each thing (4)
- Contingency, per hire20% of first-year salary
- Retained search$14,025 each
- Sourcing only$2,350 per role
- Interview process design$2,350 each
US rates for recruiter / headhunters at your level, adjusted for your market. What you last got wins.
- 20% of $0 in first-year salary$0
For 20% of $0 in first-year salary, the quote is $0.
To take home $85,000 after $9,000 of costs and 30% tax you need to bill $134,286 a year. At 24 billable hours a week for 47 weeks that is $125 an hour, $950 a day. Anything under that is a pay cut you did not agree to.
Recruiters at your level day at about $775; you sit inside the range, so quote it without apology.
A retained search runs $5,000 to $20,000 and takes about 40 hours of your time; at your hourly that is $5,000. The number is the higher of the two, because the client is buying the outcome, not the hours.
A retainer is the month, not the hours: a pipeline of roles worked. It is priced about 20% under the same work bought one at a time, in exchange for the certainty; three months minimum, or it is not a retainer.
15 to 25% of first-year salary is the norm. It only makes sense when the money is real: under about $3,000 a month in fees a flat retainer pays you better and the client can budget it.