Income & Financial Stability

This chapter delves into the crucial financial aspects of freelancing, exploring daily rates, annual rate increases, and the perceived stability of income. Understanding these elements is key to assessing the overall financial health and satisfaction of service design professionals operating independently.

Did your daily rate increase this year?

This chart shows the percentage of freelancers who reported an increase in their daily rate compared to the previous year.

By what percentage did your rate increase?

This histogram displays the distribution of percentage increases for freelancers who reported a rate hike.

How satisfied are you with the predictability and stability of your freelance income?

The chart below provides a breakdown of how freelancers perceive the predictability and stability of their income. It displays the full distribution of responses for each year, allowing us to see the overall composition of sentiment from extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied.

While the chart above shows the total makeup of responses, it can sometimes be hard to quickly assess the balance between positive and negative outlooks. The following visualization addresses this.

Is your income stability improving?

This diverging bar chart presents the same data but centers it to highlight the contrast between satisfaction (right, green) and dissatisfaction (left, red). Neutral responses are removed from the bars to emphasize the polarity, making it easier to see if the overall sentiment is skewing positive or negative compared to previous years.