It really depends on what the SEO is going to do for the money. Since I'm not an SEO myself, and always do my own seo work, I'm not sure what the going rate is. However, a good SEO should take into consideration all of the following -

Optimize page titles and meta tags
Reword body content for appropriate keyword density
Reorganize site navigation for optimal spidering
Create sitemap
Get backlinks
Optimize payperclick campaigns such as Google Adwords

In India you can get a small site optimized for 100 - 200 USD

I think Im in the wrong bizz...

In Canada, the salary for an SEO expert ranges from $25,000 a year to $100,000.

Business minded SEO experts operating on their own can make about the same money as an average lawyer does.

Are you still in the wrong business or do you want to keep up your specialized training in a field that is in constant growth.

Often in SEO, you get what you pay for.

I'm not so sure that I would be personally comfortable being a fulltime SEO. While I can't disagree that there is an enormous amount of money to be made in it right now, it is a very volatile industry. Additionally, you're always at the whim of Google and the search engines. I think that there would always be this constant looming stress over my head running a business that was 100% at the mercy of just one other company, regardless of my own business skills. I need a bit more independence than that.

The world's top SE Consultant, Danny Sullivan of SEW charges $500 / hr. That's the max your should pay. Otherwise, your question is a very tricky one to answer.

Yeah I have had experience outsourcing to large companies in India, they have a thorough grasp on the English language but still not good enough for effective SEO for example a link supposed to be titled "auto classifieds" was titled "sedan classifieds" you definetely get what you pay for

Yep, ever since I got on board with an SEO company and have added some seo to my resume I get job offers all the time there is a good demand for SEO's and a ton of money to be made. I've seen an SEO job on Craigslist paying 200k/year...that's why Im on here learning.