8th February 2009, 11:25 PM
I have been self-employed in archaeology for over two decades and have had various tussles with the IR over what work counts as employed - eg teaching at a one off day school doesn't - I appealed this to an inspector. I don't believe that they would accept any digger at any level below site director as self-employed due to lack of control of working situation and hours - the rules are very explicit on that point.
On another note I would like to meet any "historian" who charges ?5-10 an hour for research. I presume this figure is what may be charged by record offices for genealogical research but the people doing such research are usually poorly qualified by historian standards and employed on a salary. As it is even ?20 an hour is laughable which is why specialists are dying out rapidly and are often amongst the lowest paid workers in the UK. Museum curators with a fraction of my experience and qualifications were charging ?350 a day a decade ago and I suspect ?500 now for consultancy work. They don't live in luxury on such rates by the time pension payments etc are taken into account. My book budget is several grand a year but then that is why people employ me because I know more than they do- I can identify that find and quote the out of print Danish publication to hand with the best parallel (happened a few weeks back). The amount of money you earn is irrelevant to self-employed status (I often don't earn enough to pay tax) but how you receive and select your work and control it is. The problem with minimum day rates is you often find he client has say ?500 for the specialist report and it is up to you how long you spend on it and what you are prepared to let go with your name attached-a vicious circle in an area where you depend entirely on your reputation and faithful client base. Also what you can charge depends on geography- you can charge larger units working for big developers more than small clients in the sticks who think a a new domestic garage is a major development. Would I have become an accountant no but I have the luxury of knowing I won't starve in old age like many of my colleagues but no thanks to archaeology.
On another note I would like to meet any "historian" who charges ?5-10 an hour for research. I presume this figure is what may be charged by record offices for genealogical research but the people doing such research are usually poorly qualified by historian standards and employed on a salary. As it is even ?20 an hour is laughable which is why specialists are dying out rapidly and are often amongst the lowest paid workers in the UK. Museum curators with a fraction of my experience and qualifications were charging ?350 a day a decade ago and I suspect ?500 now for consultancy work. They don't live in luxury on such rates by the time pension payments etc are taken into account. My book budget is several grand a year but then that is why people employ me because I know more than they do- I can identify that find and quote the out of print Danish publication to hand with the best parallel (happened a few weeks back). The amount of money you earn is irrelevant to self-employed status (I often don't earn enough to pay tax) but how you receive and select your work and control it is. The problem with minimum day rates is you often find he client has say ?500 for the specialist report and it is up to you how long you spend on it and what you are prepared to let go with your name attached-a vicious circle in an area where you depend entirely on your reputation and faithful client base. Also what you can charge depends on geography- you can charge larger units working for big developers more than small clients in the sticks who think a a new domestic garage is a major development. Would I have become an accountant no but I have the luxury of knowing I won't starve in old age like many of my colleagues but no thanks to archaeology.