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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?

#71

Post by cassianoleal »

lbriner wrote: post #46
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?

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…

> Could you drop them at that point? Possibly but not if your mortgage would become unaffordable.

That's actually why you should charge as much as you can. Build a buffer, have a way out of market drops. That kind of risk is precisely why contractors tend to charge a lot more than their salaried counterparts.

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

#72

Post by datavirtue »

$150/hr USD OH/NC/TN

Small S-Corp of consultants/contractors. Software development team augmentation mostly but we often have multiple people in each client--often working together. We actually do consulting work in addition to contracting.

A few people have higher rates...which is client dependent. The big clients have asked for every person we can throw at them but we purposefully do not go all-in like that.

At my gig, a startup in Dayton, I work with two other developers from my company and we are responsible for a new product--soup to nuts. We handle project management, requirements definition (experts in finance/banking/payments), DevOps, and coding and meeting with a wide array of business ops people and management.

Honestly, we are working for a low rate in this instance but there are zero micromanagement or bullshit or dumbasses to deal with. We have outrun the business and spend our time on nice to have stuff while they catch up. We choose the tech stack.

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

#74

Post by treeman79 »

dewey wrote: post #67
WhatsName wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you want a 10.000USD or the 30.000USD surgery? There is a paradoxon that people associate costs with quality. High rates never hurt anyone, given that they actually deliver on it.

> Would you want a 10.000USD or the 30.000USD surgery? I'd like to have the 0USD surgery, but maybe that's just my inner European.

We don’t have a VAT tax. Free just means you pay with other peoples money while they pay with yours.

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

#75

Post by datavirtue »

edent wrote: post #68

I have three rates. You are a charity, or other worthy cause, or someone I really want to work with - 50% - 100% discount. You are a normal client - 100%. You are either an arsehole or have asked for something very last minute - 150%-200% depending on the mood I'm in. The last one, colloquially known as the fuck-off rate, is probably the best bit of contracting advice I ever got from a colleague. He hated the gig we…

Good point. Developers need to quit putting tools (languages, frameworks, cloud vendors) and tech buzzwords next to their name. It is embarrassing as hell.

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

#76

Post by halkony »

doctorhandshake wrote: post #11
a_square_peg wrote: post #4

I think this might also depends on the duration and the nature of the contract work but perhaps you can consider increasing your rate as a way of filtering out jobs when you start getting more jobs than you can handle.

This is advice I give contractor friends frequently. Too busy? Raise your rate until you are winning fewer jobs but making the same amount. Or working less for more money. My observation having gone through this several times over 15+ years of contracting: perhaps counter-intuitively, the clients you retain and the new ones you acquire at your increased rate will treat you and your time with more respect. I don’t hav…

I think your observation is correct.

You might be interested in reading "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Cialdini. In the first chapter, he describes a souvenir shop in New Mexico that had trouble selling inventory. The owner just couldn't sell her jewel necklaces. The owner went on vacation, and told the clerk to cut all the prices in half (far below their value). When she came back, she learned the clerk misheard her and doubled all the prices... and all of them sold out! Tourists at the stop didn't know how to recognize necklace quality on their own, so they used the price as the next most reliable indicator of quality.

I imagine it's similar with companies that see software as beyond their expertise.

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

#77

Post by shubb »

samwillis wrote: post #5

I would be particularly interested in hearing what "Full Stack Developers" charge in the UK. I recently started doing freelance/contract work but I'm not really sure what others similar to me change. (I'm particularly experienced (15 years) in Python/Django, JS/Vue, UI/UX)

I don't know how realistic the data is as it's from ad scrapes but this site provides good stats for the UK market https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/

Probably very varied by geo / industry as well - from my experience as a permie 50 miles distance or working for one type of bank instead of another can do multiples on your salary.

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

#78

Post by dewey »

treeman79 wrote: post #74
dewey wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you want a 10.000USD or the 30.000USD surgery? I'd like to have the 0USD surgery, but maybe that's just my inner European.

We don’t have a VAT tax. Free just means you pay with other peoples money while they pay with yours.

The VAT isn't funding the health insurances.

The money for health insurance is taken out of your salary before you even receive it.

> Free just means you pay with other peoples money while they pay with yours.

That doesn't make any sense to me, you contribute by paying your taxes and you benefit when you need it.

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

#79

Post by atraac »

tpxl wrote: post #27

I do backend Java development as a mid-senior engineer (~10 years of experience). I have a good grasp of SQL, git, Spring, ... I do 35€/hr in central/southern Europe, working for a local fintech company (2-3x what I'd get as wage). I plan on rising my rates later this year. I was in talks with a US company, and they balked when I requested 42$/hr as that was what they paid their employees from the US.

I'm sorry for maybe being too frank but 35 eur/h is way too little. It's a bit below full time employment rates level even for Poland. You can get 40eur/h almost instantly anywhere. Some agencies are willing to pay up to 90eur/h for frontend devs as far as I've seen. It's much harder for backend development but 40-50eur is still easily obtainable. I'm looking right now and most offers come down to 40 eur/h for mid/senior .NET development.

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

#80

Post by brightball »

edent wrote: post #68

I have three rates. You are a charity, or other worthy cause, or someone I really want to work with - 50% - 100% discount. You are a normal client - 100%. You are either an arsehole or have asked for something very last minute - 150%-200% depending on the mood I'm in. The last one, colloquially known as the fuck-off rate, is probably the best bit of contracting advice I ever got from a colleague. He hated the gig we…

I always called that 3rd rate the "rush rate"
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