I’m currently a college student and like many of you, I hate the idea of working some shitty minimum wage job and constantly be mistreated by managers and employers. I worked for McDonalds a month in high school and despite saying I could only work 5-10 hours, they’d constantly give me 15-20 hours and complain when I’d put up shifts. I don’t wanna do that again and I also have a passion for tutoring so I’ve decided to see if I could do that as a job in college.
Google says the average price of a private tutor is $25-90 per hour. I’m currently charging $20/hour and the minimum wage in my town is $14.78 (in July it’ll be $15.70). I still want to be affordable to low income folks, however, so in the event that someone can’t afford it (which hasn’t happened yet), I’d just tell them I can do $18/hour.
Since qualifications are important for pricing, I always tell them all of my relevant experience.
I’ve been tutoring since freshman year of high school (a little over 4 years) with one year including some paid tutoring. I’m currently a tutor for a local tutoring business (only get $15/hour there even though they charge like $100 per session…) and have been background checked by them. I also took a child development class where I worked at a preschool my freshman year of hs. I also know CPR in emergencies, however I need to get re-certified.
I’ve recently done paid tutoring for students in grades K, 4th, 6th, and 7th, and I’ve done volunteer tutoring for many students at my school in grades 9-12, including an ESL student (basically someone who isn’t 100% fluent in English). I’ve gotten nothing but compliments and have had several families connect me to other families because they liked my tutoring.
My boyfriend’s mom said I should charge $25/hour and said “people will pay for it”, but it just sounds like expecting people to pay so much is ethically questionable. I don’t want to take advantage of people and I really want students (including low income) to enjoy learning. $20 is still more than what most of my friends make plus I get to make my own hours and basically be my own boss.
Am I undercharging? Overcharging? If I’m undercharging, is there a way I can subtly tell people I can charge less to provide services to low income folks (without being taken advantage)? If I’m overcharging, what’s a more reasonable price?
Edit: Obligatory fuck, shit, damn, fuck spez, hell, etc for API BS.