undefined_user6

The company I freelance as a developer for recently lost the main on-call developer and now I've become the person available 24/7 if anything happens. It rarely does, but it's still a bit of a burden on me to always have that in the back of my head. I've been on-call in this way for about three months now.

I charge by the hour. I am thinking of charging the client $1000/month in addition to my billable hours for my 24/7 availability.

One more thing to consider: I am the _only_ developer. The bus factor here is 1. If they lose me, they are going to be in serious trouble to keep their business running long-term. I mention this because I want to make sure I'm not extorting them (i.e. "pay me more money or I'm leaving and you're screwed") and also so it doesn't _appear_ that I'm extorting them.

My questions:

* Is $1,000/month a reasonable amount to bill for 24/7 on-call availability?

* Does this seem like extortion to you? If so, how can I make it less so? I don't want to extort my client, I just want to be paid for this considerable burden that's been added to my life and that often doesn't take up many billable hours.

Thanks!

P.S. I'm in the USA