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Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

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Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#161

Post by Khelavaster »

halkony wrote: post #57
arbitrage wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, some people need health insurance for themselves and their family, a retirement plan, and predictable financial stability in their lives. > You are full of it. Anyone can do this. Your part to whole fallacy aside, in the real world, there are different constraints on people and family units other than trying to make the most amount of money all the time.

To be clear, contractors charge a higher rate exactly because of what you describe. If you make $50/hr as an employee, you'll need at least $100/hr to pay for all the overhead with insurance, accountants, self-employment taxes, FICA, etc. These costs are mostly invisible in bigger orgs. It may seem like contractor wages are greedy, but know that companies are willing to pay good money for domain expertise. Especially…

That's not how taxes work at all..

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#162

Post by lnsru »

Escapado wrote: post #111

I am located in germany, work as a fullstack dev with frontend focus (react/vue). I have about 6 years of total dev experience[1]. For full time projects I charge 90-100€/h (+19% VAT) and I exclusively take on remote projects. When I started out at as a freelancer at the beginning of 2020 my rate was 80€/h. If I was approached with short term projects(as in less than 160h of work) I would charge significantly more bu…

Thank you for your post with financials! It’s really nice to have such information from the source.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#163

Post by no-dr-onboard »

Appsec/Network Pentesting, (freelance insured, bonded, "botique")

$275/hr, hours stated upfront per app/project. Change order issued if we have to go over. Nondelivery of access prior to testing period eats away at your time. We do a kickoff call 3d prior to make sure that this doesn't happen.

I'll work with them to deliver results in a format that you can import. I'll do an in-person kickoff & readout, otherwise fully remote. I'll deliver abstracts for you to give to your clients. I've been doing this for 7y now and turn down a lot of work based on scheduling.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#164

Post by TbobbyZ »

no-dr-onboard wrote: post #163

Appsec/Network Pentesting, (freelance insured, bonded, "botique") $275/hr, hours stated upfront per app/project. Change order issued if we have to go over. Nondelivery of access prior to testing period eats away at your time. We do a kickoff call 3d prior to make sure that this doesn't happen. I'll work with them to deliver results in a format that you can import. I'll do an in-person kickoff & readout, otherwise ful…

How do I get started in your field of work?

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#165

Post by biztos »

adamsmith143 wrote: post #158
lbriner wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't sound like good advice. When the market drops suddenly, lots of the people on the top rates won't get any work due to demand. Could you drop them at that point? Possibly but not if your mortgage would become unaffordable. An alternative is to consider what lifestyle you think is fair for society and work it out from that. We don't all have to perpetuate the worst of capitalism that I should be paid whatever p…

>Possibly but not if your mortgage would become unaffordable. This has nothing to do with your rate or the market but your inability to avoid crippling lifestyle creep.

"Lifestyle creep" is a great term! Not to be confused with the creep lifestyle of course.

My own lifestyle creep has become problematic, but thankfully not yet crippling, and I'm working to claw back some of that creep. But not in a creepy way.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#166

Post by ukoki »

simonw wrote: post #7

The best advice I ever got about freelancing was to increase my rate for every job and keep on doing that until people refused to hire me. How else can you figure out what you're worth?

To put it a similar way: If you get 5 LinkedIn recruiters reaching out to you a month looking for contractors, and you need a new contract once every 6 months. That's 5*6 = 30 opportunities per contract period. You can only do one, so price your services such that only 29 of the 30 will say you're too expensive (or to play it a bit safer, let's say 9 out of 10).

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#168

Post by number6 »

Escapado wrote: post #143
dijit wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's probably true that you're earning more; but you should know that the amount seen on the balance sheet isn't the whole truth. In fact, I'm quite sure you know, but for those reading: 80-100eur/h on a contract is roughly equivalent to 50-60eur/h salaried; due to social contributions, paid vacation (1.12th of your salary), pension contributions and other benefits relating to insurance in the even the business goes…

You are not wrong that they are not the same but the difference is smaller than you think. Let's run the numbers: Last year I worked for 210 days and I made 143.480€ (=85€/h) after deducting the 19% VAT. I paid 10.740€ for health insurance (which is capped) and 15.720€ for the pension fund (which I don't have to do but choose to do and this is the same rate an employer/employee would pay given that income) leaving me…

Thanks for the Financials. People in germany don't talk money very often.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#169

Post by woopwoop24 »

Germany, freelancer in "devops" we call it these days (infra automation, container, k8s etc..) with about 7 years of experience in linux and 10 years overall in consulting.

i charge around 100€-125€/h (+19% VAT) depending if onsite or remote. i have seen people go for 150€ but these are the ones kicked out first if there is an issue or company needs to save money.

Re: Ask HN: Contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#170

Post by throwaway642012 »

woopwoop24 wrote: post #169

Germany, freelancer in "devops" we call it these days (infra automation, container, k8s etc..) with about 7 years of experience in linux and 10 years overall in consulting. i charge around 100€-125€/h (+19% VAT) depending if onsite or remote. i have seen people go for 150€ but these are the ones kicked out first if there is an issue or company needs to save money.

If I may ask, how is the German freelance market in the current environment?

I'm on fence about going freelance (Mobile/backend+DevOps) and would love to know your thoughts.

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