average salary of web designer

just am curious to know whats the average salary of a web designer in USA and how much do people charge per hour normally?

What part of USA? That's a little general...

i am asking in general, in fact i am outside USA and i am approached by a company for web related work and they are willing to pay me per hour so i am curious to know that what does a web designer charges in USA for web work....

Between $8/hr and $120/hr depending on your experience, technical skill, the type of web development (making simple HTML pages or a full-blown database/customized CMS driven dynamic site) location and perhaps most importantly: negotiation ability. ;-)

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thanks for such an informative reply, btw i have very good communication skill and am very good graphic designer and php/mysql developer... they're paying me about US$ 4/hr : and my work includes PHP,ASP, MySQL, Streaming Videos Pages, Graphic designing etc... But I am still happy with this amount as something is better than nothing

Yeah, the minimum wage in the USA is $5.15 but states and city/county governments may set that bar higher. Here in the city of San Francisco it is $8.62 (or $7.75 for non-profits).

I might guess you live in a country where $1 gets you a lot more than a bag of stale crisps.

well, i am not happy with US$ 4/ hr but ... what can i do?? as i said Something is Better than nothing.... waiting for the good days when some American Organization would send a warning to my employers not to pay me that less or when some other company would offer me a better deal... thanks for your interest...

If you compare 4 dollars an hr(in us currency) to your standard of living in your country. That's comparable to $15 an hour for an American programmer in the united states.
I heard $300 a month in a country like India is a good wage. Ma be i wrong with this calculation.

Hello,
I think that we cannot talk about different countries as the job is the same and the salary should be the same if you are US or Non US. But that is the way it is, most of the US companies are using the services of overseas workers and pay them less, which is not very good for the business as the people in US cannot find a good job in some moment but it healthy for the your country and you if you got more clients that you cannot find in your home country. So I think that it is all about negotiations with the employer and of course the nature and the quality of the job you are doing.

I know that when we were hiring designers in Southern California about 1 year ago, the breakdown was something like this:

Beginner/Low Experience = $35,000 - $40,000 per year

Mid Tier Designer = $40,000 - $55,000 per year

Top Designers/Principal Artists = $55,000 - $80,000 per year

This was for a job in a large Internet corporation as a web designer.

That's cool, but web designer in other countries earn less. India is a good example, Brazil is another good one.

It's not easy to find great designers, now a days when people are thriving for clean look and creativity it really narrows down the market.
I think that great designers still are away from the market, here in Brazil finding great artists isn't a easy task, my friend the other day was after some good designer. The best designers are probably employed or almost found one while only a few still are out.

I just wrote a blog entry on calculating an hourly rate for contract work. Maybe it'll be helpful.

A rule of thumb on how much to charge per hour for contract work.

I'm interested in hearing how other freelancers calculate their hourly rate too.

Meh, I'd be happy to get paid for work at all

Well, I'm not volunteering! If they didn't pay me I'd grab my Bobby Crosby bobblehead, personal reference books and be down the elevator and out the door in record time :-)

Folks who really want to value their job in their market in the USA should check out bls.gov which has median market rates by geographic region for nearly every job from nuclear physicist to horse shoers...