There’s a misconception that independent workers can’t make enough money but the reality is, of those who quit a traditional job in order to freelance, 73% of full-time freelancers say they earn more now than they did at a traditional employer.
We compiled a list of the 20 highest-paying skills for U.S. freelancers out of more than 5,000 on our site. The data shows some independent professionals are earning more than $250 an hour for work in categories spanning nearly every industry, including legal, tech, finance, and marketing.
According to Upwork Chief Economist Adam Ozimek: “This data illustrates that work of a very high skilled nature is being done by professionals on Upwork. Highly-paid skills aren’t just anecdotes or limited to one field. They range from law to marketing to finance to high tech, and a significant percentage of U.S. freelancers earn quite high hourly wages on the platform.”
Check out the skills that companies are paying the big bucks for:
Want more industry-specific information? Here’s a look at tech and marketing skills.
Top tech skills and their average hourly rates
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- Bitcoin – $215
- Image object recognition – $180
- Virtual machine – $175
- SQR – $170
- Lucene search – $165
- OrCAD – $165
- P-CAD – $165
- Clustering – $165
- DHTML – $150
- SAP CPI – $150
- Google Adsense API – $150
- Oracle Integration Cloud – $145
- Dell Boomi – $140
- Google Experiments – $140
- VWO – $140
- Virtualization – $135
- Backup administration – $135
- Open CV – $135
- Expression engine – $130
- Systems development – $125
Top marketing skills and their average hourly rate
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- Behavioral design – $195
- Event photography – $150
- Lead magnet – $150
- Paid social – $145
- Hotjar – $130
- Scenario planning – $125
- Innovation strategy – $125
- Citrix / GoToMeeting – $125
- Pricing strategy consulting – $115
- Video processing – $110
- Executive coaching – $105
- DoubleClick Bid Manager – $105
- Pitch deck – $105
- Venture capital consulting – $100
- Social listening – $100
- Partnerships – $100
- Food photography – $95
- Facebook ads – $95
- DoubleClick for Publishers – $95
- Marketo – $90
This data was sourced from the Upwork database and is based on average hourly rates charged by U.S. freelancers from Jan 1, 2019 – June 30, 2019. Each skill had a minimum of 2 contracts and 40 hours billed (equivalent of 1 week of work and more than 1 project) for reliability.
The post The 20 Highest-paying Skills for Independent Professionals Right Now appeared first on Upwork Blog.