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Dear Arrighi,
I get jobs addressing envelopes, and I'm not sure what to charge. I seem to work so hard and get so little. What's the going rate, and what are some of the variables?
Signed,
Crippled Fingers and Empty Wallet
Dear Crippled Fingers and Empty Wallet,
I did an informal but widespread survey and found that the average going rate was $2.00 to $3.75, with $2.50 being by far the most quoted price. This is for ink, italic, and flush left format. Then start to add for variables including: gouache, centered format, different styles, extra lines of copy, lined envelopes you can't see through. For various changed the price ranges up to $6.00 an envelope.
The bottom line is, to add up how many you can address in an hour and see if it's worth while. If you are able to do six in an hour and charge $2.00 per envelope, that's $12.00 an hour. Is that enough? If you can do 15 an hour at $2.00 that's $22.50. After a few jobs you'll decide how much is enough.
Signed,
Arrighi