# Fair price for tutoring? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2005, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464 "2005-11-17T05:45:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WaryEri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea666f/32.png) [@WaryEri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WaryEri)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/1 "2005-11-17T05:45:40Z")
My husband is a physics instructor at a community college. A woman who lives nearby has contacted him about tutoring her daughter, who’s doing poorly in physics at another post-secondary school. He’s meeting with them on Monday to figure out if he can help her and to work out details- including payment, which is where we need some opinions. We really don’t know what a fair rate would be for this sort of thing. He did some tutoring in university, but it was all arranged by the school, and he doesn’t know how his wages compared to what the students were paying the school for his time. I’ve looked around google, but the prices seem to vary by a wide range (and all look high to me, but I’ve never provided or received tutoring before, so maybe I just don’t know what it’s worth) . He’s more worried about overcharging than undercharging, but would prefer to avoid aiming ridiculously low. Anyone have some experience on this to share, as a tutor or a…tutee? I told him to ask his coworkers, but he wanted to hear some more anonymous advice as well. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/2 "2005-11-17T07:26:20Z")
For our daughter had to have a tutor for her high school trig class. A retired math teacher in the area was tutoring for $20/hr. We used him and it helped her tremendously! It’s worth the money to get a decent tutor, and parents/students know that, and are probably willing to pay whatever is asked, within reason. I think $20/hr is worth every cent! ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/3 "2005-11-17T11:36:28Z")
In my somewhat limited experience with this sort of thing, people expect you to know your worth (after all, you are the professional), and if you lowball yourself, you suggest that in your professional opnion, you aren’t worth much. I wouldn’t go a penny lower than $20/hour, and I think I’d probably set my rates closer to $30-40/hour (and I’d go higher if you were in a state with a higher cost of living, like California or New York). ---
**Author:** ![BlueKangaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@BlueKangaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueKangaroo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/4 "2005-11-17T12:59:03Z")
Well, recently I chatted with a fellow MS student about her tutoring. She was getting her MS in Biology, she didn’t have it yet, and was charging $30/hour to tutor Calculus. I suspect she could have charged more if she’d been tutoring in her field. She also felt that was a lot of money, but didn’t want to undervalue herself. The professor who referred this family to her told her she could charge up to $50/hour. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/5 "2005-11-17T14:03:45Z")
A couple of years ago, I tutored an aquaintance in precalc-type math for $40 an hour. She offered that price, which I thought was ridiculously extravagant at the time, but she was satisfied that she got her money’s worth. I was/am a graduate student in astronomy with an MS, working on a PhD. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/6 "2005-11-17T15:08:07Z")
You may want to figure out what a student pays to be in class for 1 hour. In my case, I pay about $20 for each hour of scheduled class time. This is an in-state university rate. To me, that confirms $20 as a reasonable floor for tutoring charges, since I am clearly getting better value with one-on-one attention and the ability to focus the lessons on the areas where I am personally having trouble. If I failed a class I could take it over at $20 an hour. If your husband is very confident he can get the student to pass where she would otherwise fail, he is essentially saving the student a semester’s worth of taking the class over again, $600 in my example. That, presumably, would be a reasonable ceiling to the total tutoring charges, regardless of hours spent. ---
**Author:** ![Corii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Corii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corii)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/7 "2005-11-17T17:14:37Z")
$20/hour is a good baseline, that is what many of the physics/math grad students around here charge for tutoring. As an amusing aside, I first thought the thread titles was “Fair price for torturing?” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/8 "2005-11-17T19:24:16Z")
Anywhere from $45-60/hour for a good tutor out here. Then again, I also live in one of the most expensive parts of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Corii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Corii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corii)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fair-price-for-tutoring/331464/9 "2005-11-17T19:27:03Z")
I should clarify, since he’s an instructor with presumably more teaching experience than a grad student, I’d expect him to be able to charge more like $40-50/hr.