As you say Davie, there has been loads of discussion about it and the real answer is everyone is guessing, none of us really know.
But at the end of the day it really doesn't matter. IM, if you don;t want to pay her AW rate then book through the Agency, simple really
If the WG's put their prices up to much compared with others in the region then their phone will become dusty,
That's spot on, we have no way of knowing how many punters any one of them see in a day, but I suspect it's not as many as some might think.
That said I don't understand the fascination some people have about how much a prossie earns or why they feel the need to speculate on those earnings.
If the prossie's fee is value for money then pay it, if there's a lower rate then pay that, if there both too high, find a cheaper one . The only thing that matters is that she's clean and well presented for your appointment and she puts the required effort in. How much she earns is totally irrelevant.
I wonder if the same people spend their time speculating how much plumbers, electricians, taxi drivers or any other service providers earn.