Budgeting a project which will see Ms Maccruiskeen and possibly myself too spending a few weeks working in one of the world’s spicier, more unruly corners. We’re calculating our fees and thinking about to what extent the risk, or at least the concern, of riot…… kidnap……. stray bullets….. those kind of things should be weighted in our budget.

Knowing that there a quite a few STWers who knock about its some of the worlds murkier corners as part of their work is there a consideration in your renumeration for undertaking those trips?

I would imagine a fair amount of the fee is down to the discomfort and/or danger involved.

A mate of mine does exactly the same job as me but in the slightly less savoury area that is the Caspian Sea. Hardly the middle of a warzone, but he still takes home more than 3x the amount I do. For something a bit tastier I’d be wanting in the region of 5x my current salary, and I’m sure that would come in less than others might ask for.

Where are you potentially off to?

Leeds?

Leeds? There might be enough money in the world, but there sure as hell isn’t a big enough lorry to deliver it all to me. I’m out.

Where are you potentially off to?

at the moment….. can’t say ‘Loose tongues cost content’. In a sense its a bit difficult to factor for – we’re being invited into the country so we’re sort of guests, rather than sent out to it, if that makes sense.

Leeds?

=3x salary.
.
Glasgow
=5x salary
.
😉

Glasgow
=5x salary

looks like we’ll be on 1/5th our typical rate then 🙂

Would need to take account of the increased insurance costs I’m guessing?

I would need to check the real dangers as opposed to perceived dangers.

To be honest there is no amount of money that would get me working in a warzone. However to work in some South American countries that are seen as a bit of a risk, but would also give me the opportunity to experience a different culture would be an easier sell.

Have you done your homework on the actual risks yet?

One thing you need to factor in is the provision of medical care…

No idea where it is but if it is somewhere you may be more likely to need medical treatment you need to make sure you know the costs of getting decent medical care and/or repatriation and budget for accordingly.

Seven posts in, and no-one’s picked up on the essential spelling error?

Standards are slipping.

I just thought he was counting again.

Standards are slipping.

Sorry, I was working

[pedant]It’s remuneration[/pedant]

Shocking!

Apologies for hijack.
I’d be interested in working somewhere potentially dangerous for up to 6 months to be able to save enough to get back to BC.
Any ideas?

Have you done your homework on the actual risks yet?

I haven’t done my english homework 🙂 – but as to actual risks, as opposed to perceived risk – yes we’ve been ruminating on them. Things are pretty fluid there but the people we’d be working for (and with) have a good idea of where the tensions are. We’ll be obvious auslanders though.

no-one’s picked up on the essential spelling error?

Why was the error “essential”, exactly? Could you not survive without it? 😉

the fee is down to the discomfort and/or danger involved.

Not to mention the nature of the work being undertaken. Central/safe location within running distance of the Embassy is rather different to being deep, deep in country where there are belligerent locals with sharpened mangoes around every corner.

Invited in – it’s either Iran or North Korea then.

Rebuilding afghanistan ?

I work in nigeria and other west african risky countrys quite often

Main concerns for me in your situation is who is responsible and what quality is your security? Both during rhe day and living acocmodation. Costs mount up quickly

We have company supplied armed mopo guards at all times in nigeria, an armed compound where a 1 bed flat is 2k a week to my co. a food allowance an a day rate similar to what flying ox talks of

Be sure you know who is supplying what and if its not supplied what it will cost to put in place.

Do not sell your self short ! These places can be grim and youll soon wish you had screwed for more to be in line with the others

Also be careful with your percieved risk thing .

I would be happy walking round port harcourt 9/10 days on my own … Its that 1 day when you need security your glad its there . Equally in these countrys even “safe” areas can escalate quickly. Had a mate stuck in compound during the fuel strikes last year – said even in compound it was scary . Now imagin you went lax on security and were stuck outside a compound when shit was going off ?

There are plenty places you need invited to in the world glupton . I have just been reinvited to turkmenistan and equatorial guinea!

I’d be interested in working somewhere potentially dangerous for up to 6 months to be able to save enough to get back to BC.
Any ideas?

Rent boy?

Rebuilding afghanistan ?

Nobody would thank me if I rebuilt it, it would only look good from one side 🙂 Thankfully my scenery building skills aren’t been called upon on this occasion.

But cheers for that Trailrat – this was a sort of paging thread for your input

Main concerns for me in your situation is who is responsible and what quality is your security?

That. No matter what you are being paid you need to know that if you are relying on others for your security that they know what they are doing.

I know Chevron had a system for their US-based employees whereby they’d pay a % premium on top of your US salary depending on where you ended up. Highest I heard of was +60% for working in Iran or Nigeria. Assuming working in the US isn’t that much worse than the UK, 60% extra would be nowhere near enough to get me to Iran/Nigeria. Turned down a job at a gas plant in the Niger delta earlier this year. The day rate was obscene but the security situation did not look good (refer back to Trail Rat’s comments on quality of security). Company was indigenous.

Take a look at this beauty. Little danger involved and plenty of reward:

link

My basic is similar to what I could earn in the UK however i get a 77% uplift as they call it due to working in a war zone although to be honest we are fairly safe here. Guys who work outside the wire are on a lot more but there is no way I would do that unless I was armed! (i’m also tax and NI free so in reality i’m taking home about four times what I did in the UK). Oh and food and accommodation etc is provided free of charge.

i’m also tax and NI free

That’s the trick really. I think as long as you work more that half a year outside the uk you are ok but you need to make sure of course that

* I’m not talking bollocks
* That is is all in one year
* That the country your are working in don’t want the tax instead. e.g. don’t expect countries like Afghanistan to ignore your earnings (although they might if it is a short time)

Leffeboy – almost. You can only be in the UK up to 90 days per tax year and even then you need to provide evidence of being outside the UK in order to be income tax exempt.

Partial days in the UK count as full days. So if they scan your passport at Heathrow arrivals at 11:50pm, Osborne and co call that a full day in blighty.

I’m sure Rockhopper could advise more but otherwise best to call on Ex Pat Tax Consultants out of Newcastle or similar. I spend about 6-7 months a year in Kazakhstan but still pay full whack UK tax which sucks but what can you do.

Edit: If you pay income tax abroad this will offset your UK tax liability if there is a double-taxation treaty in place. God this is depressing I sound like an accountant.

Don’t be fooled by ratty boy, he lays a bed that he’s off here n there. Working in unpronounceable countries When in fact he is hiding under the stairs, posting at odd times of the day to look like he’s on some weird timezone.

:FACT:

…there are belligerent locals with sharpened mangoes around every corner.

It was a particularly sharp mango…

An bruneep pretends to fight fires – reality he closes doors at the station !

Also check you have no tax liability in the country your working in! Eqatorial guinea charged 40% of my day rate which company paid on my behalf . How ever once the provided proof i got a chunk back through double taxation rules !

Rent boy?

What makes you think I’m a boy jota180?

Wishful thinking?

Why was the error “essential”, exactly? Could you not survive without it?

Because it is of the essence.

Leftboy, I’m in Afghanistan! They don’t take any tax off us (at the moment anyhow and I’ve been here for nearly two years now) We can even get stuff shipped here VAT free by Amazon.

You have to be in the UK at midnight on the day in question for HMRC to count it as a day, plus they don’t talk to immigration so its up to you to prove when you came and went (keep plane tickets and any receipts for things you bought whilst away). You usually find that companies will pay rather more to people who work in countries where you pay local taxes so you all come out round about the same in the end.

My advice would be to get an accountant to sort out your tax return. My company has an arrangement with HMRC which makes it all very simple.

belligerent locals are far worse than ‘state forces’ worked near dubrovnik in 93 after the siege but still pretty unpleasant.
didnt ask anywhere near enough money ( unlimited expences and about a grand a week, seemed like an awful lot before we left blighty..)

so where is it then?
there are sources of information out there that will provide you with information on a ‘quality of living’ differential based on your present location and where you will be working.
this takes into account: political and social environment, economic environment and relative living costs…
as well as an assessment of:
communication facilities, travel time, internal stability, crime, limitations on personal freedom, climate and records of natural disasters.
this index-linked differential might be viewed as a minimum uplift on pay.

Leftboy, I’m in Afghanistan. They don’t take any tax off us

We’ve got folks working in Afghanistan and it is something that comes around with the government every so often. It might be that they haven’t caught up on expat salaries yet but I’m sure they will do :(. It may even depend a bit on who you work for

Without quantifying the risks you face it’s hard to make an informed judgement. NGO or IGO?

Acquaintances have had body guards assigned to them when they took assignments in a certain African state. Whats been offered?

Who is paying for your accommodation and what is the security there. Is it local or contracted to a professional outfit?

Then there is the perception of risk. Some people may say certain parts of London are high risk where in comparison to the favela’s in Brazil it’s another world

Always start high and come down if you ned too.

And for the poster who wants something high risk which pays and your stuck in the UK

http://www.trials4us.co.uk

There are others, just google paid medical experiment.. Seriously!!

Thats as long you don’t mind being experimented on. In some instances the volunteers will be given placebos which is money for nothing except the mind games it puts you through.

For me personally there is no amount of money that could make me use my body in this way but each to his own

Without quantifying the risks you face it’s hard to make an informed judgement. NGO or IGO?

Theres a lot I can’t say, not because its all James Bond but because A: its not in the bag yet and B: its media related, and the idea and the access is something you need to keep under your hat.

Client is a television station but not a UK one, we’re also friendly with the government there (and its a friendly government) but the country is a bit broken. Were making a film in the country which is to be screened on TV there and we’re under the TV co’s wing. They’re buying work we’ve done in the UK on a speculative basis then paying us to complete it in-country (although one of our subjects has buggered off to the states so we might need to go there too). We need to go for at least two weeks to film, and perhaps stay to edit, but we’re not so keen on editting in-country as theres bound to be UK pick-ups we need to do, but also theres not gain content-wise in spending weeks there hunched over a screen. The rate for the work done to date is easy to price but we’re wanting to price the work to be done out there wisely/fairly. In a way we’re keen to discourage them from wanting to edit there, as they’ve got facilities in the UK, so we’re hoping to make it financial expedient for them to send crew to us rather than pay for us to stay there.

In terms of security/accomodation and the rest – thats for them to organise and assure us on. Financial our deal is on the purchase of our content to date and our time to complete the rest, but thats a deal that will be contingent on them putting the rest of the package together satisfactorily.

It’s Greece. Just don’t go

Insurance is key. See what’s on offer and who the underwriter is.

No doubt where you could end up would help shine a light on the natives outlook to your employer. That’s just one of many considerations.

Seriously speaking get some professional advice FCO and security companies that have a presence in country at the very least.

Worst case and you do get intimate with a radiator can I have your bike? 😀

It’s the isle of Sheppey isn’t it? Just bring a small mirror and some coloured beads, they’ll make you their king.