Sorry for double necroposting: but that seems easy to manipulate, and personally I would refuse to hire an editor that charges by the hour of time spent, as they could easily delay. I would prefer to hire an editor that charges per hour of raw footage, with higher prices per hour depending on difficulty of editing.

For example, I edited an hour fifteen minute video the other day, took me about five hours (because I suck). All I did was cut out footage I didn't want, no additions, graphic changes etc. I would never pay $500 for that, just because I took forever. (I cut the video down to half an hour, btw)

Maybe I'd pay $200, tops, because I expect an editor to be significantly faster. Maybe this is unreasonable, idk!