IT Contractor: Carrying Pager and Support - how to charge?

[rktest05]

Hi,

I'm a Sr. Java/J2EE developer who work on contracts. I got a contract with a Fortune 500 company (for their Toronto office) thru a recruitment agency.
I'll be starting my contract job soon.

When I signed the paper-work with the recruitment agency, they said I'll have to do production support. I.e. I'll be required to carry pager and I'll have to resolve issues if something comes up. They said the company will give me all the details including the way they will compensate when I start with the company. The recruitment agency did not say anything about compensation for carrying pagers. Nor is there anything specified in the contract.

I've never done support work as a contractor. I want to be compensated fairly for carrying pagers/providing support overnights/on weekends as I'll be sacrificing a lot by cancelling trips, being sober etc.

Here are some questions for the experts:
Let us say my contract rate is $60.00 an hour.

1) Should the company pay me for carrying pagers even if there are no issues that come up? If so, what is the fair value I should be paid?
2) How much should the company pay me if something comes up and I end up spending 1 hour to resolve it?

Thanks. BTW, the company is a Fortune 500 company and is selected sometimes back as one of the best places to work for.

[zero_]

1.5x of your rate on a weekday outside office hour
2x of your rate during a weekend

round up to an hour

[rktest05]

Thanks zero. Should I charge anything if I carry the pager (say a weekend) and no one calls me with any issue?

1.5x of your rate on a weekday outside office hour
2x of your rate during a weekend

round up to an hour

[zero_]

based on past experience, 100-200 per week for carrying a pager

[basiclogic]

Carrying a Pager / Blackberry should be something like $25 / day to a max of $125 / week whether you get called or not.
Then if you do get called after hours... 1.5 times reg rate... then again it depends on how your contract is worded it may state something like 1.5 after 44 hours...

[silvermist99]

this is how it works in my company (really big telcom):

1 hour stand by pay per night on mon-sat. sunday should be 1.5 hr

if you get paged and have to work for more then hr, then charge the hourly rate at 1.5(as OT)

if your pager doesnt ring, you should get paid an additional 7.5 hour a week for standby pay.

If it rings and you do 5 hours of OT work, you should get paid 7.5 hrs standby pay + 5 OT.

[pladwa]

when i used to do pager support, I used to receive:

$1.50 for each hour I carried the pager outside regular business hours. So roughly $22.50/day. If my pager went off and call was less than 15 minutes in length, couldn't charge anything. If I could resolve issue from home and more than 15 mins, just regular overtime charges (1.5 for each hour)... if I had to go into the office, minimum charge of 3 hours, even if I was only in for 10 minutes.

this is how it works in my company (really big telcom):

1 hour stand by pay per night on mon-sat. sunday should be 1.5 hr

if you get paged and have to work for more then hr, then charge the hourly rate at 1.5(as OT)

if your pager doesnt ring, you should get paid an additional 7.5 hour a week for standby pay.

If it rings and you do 5 hours of OT work, you should get paid 7.5 hrs standby pay + 5 OT.

[Jayhoo]

For a cheapy technology partner company, I got $140/week for carrying the pager. If it rings, I bill an hour and count from that point onwards.

[nornet]

1.5x of your rate on a weekday outside office hour
2x of your rate during a weekend

round up to an hour

Maybe you could have got those rates before the tech bubble burst but there are few around that would pay it today. Many Fortune 500 companies expect the first 1.5 to 4 hours to be free and about 25% of your working hourly rate as an standby/on call rate. Worked OT hours paid (after the "free" time) are 1.5 times your base rate. I checked with 2 people in Fortune 5 companies (not contractors) and their compensation calculations are very convoluted.
If you're dealing with a Fortune 500 company, I'm sure there's a plan in place.
This is one area companies seem to be cutting back on.

[Just Confused]

Your end client will probably already have a "plan" in place for their other contractors. It should be substantially different than they offer their employees; Everything will be expressed in terms of your agreed upon bill rate ($60) never an overtime rate... that is for employees. Consultants have all their expenses built in to their regular rack rate. There will be a base number of hours you can bill just for being on call with it and then will be the additional amount you bill for the hours working on the call. Travel time is usually a fixed number of hours per callout at your normal bill rate.

Being a dutiful consultant you should get on board with their plan with a smile even if you don't like it. Consultants don't argue with their customers (i.e. burn bridges), they simply take their skills to better clients at the end of the agreement. If it is not a satisfactory compensation in your mind, you simply walk away at the end of your 3 months or 6 months contract. They're only your customer not your boss!

[ullyeus]

As a contractor, I'm pretty sure they will balk at paying your hourly rate and will base it on their own employees rate.

Contractors normally make more...so why would this be any different?

[nornet]

Contractors normally make more...so why would this be any different?

Upon reflection, you're right. I've edited my previous post. In addition I've expanded it.