consultant compensation

[Allan Wechsler]

It's an interesting question.  I took a field methods course at
Harvard, in which a pleasant young Albanian woman permitted herself to
be grilled for two hours a week by a room mostly filled with
undergraduates.  I know that she was compensated, but once in class
when she was not present I asked the professor how much she was being
paid.  I considered it a topical and important question, but the
professor seemed to consider it improper.  I was never able to get an
answer.

About ten years ago I hired a private (modern) Hebrew tutor who seemed
most pleased to receive fifteen dollars an hour.

At MIT a consultant whom I brazenly buttonholed in the Infinite
Corridor solely because she looked South Asian, adamantly refused
payment for four or five hours of grueling interrogation on the
menagerie of Hindi complementation devices.

In the absence of firmer guidelines, my temptation would be to explore
the local market in private language tutors to find out the range of
going rates.  I think that would be an excellent first approximation.

-A