I charge 75 EUR per hour but my main client is very loyal (15 years working together), pays on time (24 hours) and I might soon become a business partner.
I de design, backend in PHP test and do server administration of a PMS for hotel.
Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
31–40 of 328 posts
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should probably charge more. Automobile repairs techs in Alabama charge more than that. But I’d like to know where you find work because I haven’t found many clients in the SE that wish to spend money.
> Automobile repairs techs Is that a different term for "mechanics"?
Yeah. Mechanics charge 50, automobile repairs tech charge 100.
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should probably charge more. Automobile repairs techs in Alabama charge more than that. But I’d like to know where you find work because I haven’t found many clients in the SE that wish to spend money.
> Automobile repairs techs Is that a different term for "mechanics"?
In the repair industry, technician is reserved for folks that can properly diagnose and make any and all repairs.
A mechanic is someone who can throw parts at a car but isn’t likely to be able to perform in-depth diagnostics or advanced repairs especially on newer cars with complex electrical systems.
A mechanic in Alabama should expect to earn $50k-$60k while a tech is closer to $110k or so.
I know at least 9 guys in my county who never finished high school and couldn’t compose a proper sentence if their lives depended on it yet they earn $150k+ per year repairing automobiles.
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#34No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#35in the uk, everyone wants to work on daily rates. 600pd-650pd as a devops engineer. So, £75, or $86 an hour. This is 5 days a week, 40 hours a week. I bill around £14k a month and after taxes i walk away with about £7k a month.
> I bill around £14k a month and after taxes i walk away with about £7k a month.
You should employ some sort of a tax-reduction strategy. Paying 50% of your gross in direct taxes is absolutely batshit crazy.
I used to contract for £350-450 per day as a PHP backend dev and paid an effective 30% tax rate. Which is still crazy insane high, but it's not 50%.
Does your 50% figure includes VAT? Because if that's not VAT inclusive, you're doing something horribly wrong. Inside IR35?
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#36I'm a cyber security specialist (in web application security) with a few certifications and 10+ years of experience. I charge usually $350 an hour unless it's something I estimate will require the help of an outsider to which I may go as high at $1k an hour. Answering everyone asking how we find clients - I love public speaking and so I try to do as much as I can. 80% of my clients saw me speak, the other 20% come fr…
How long are your engagements?
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#37OOC, do you have a link to the question from a couple of days ago?
Here it is..
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32606348
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tell clients that identifying the problem is at least 50% of the work, and that includes meetings. Well, I call them "work sessions", and I don't think it's an euphemism. And then they can pay 100 hours for a narrow scope of perfect, or they can pay 20 hours and iterate until it's good enough (bugfixes).
Is it controversial that meetings should count as billable time? I mean, it’s not like you’re there because you just really like meetings!
We bill for project management and work related meetings, but not contract and business development related meetings. So if we’re getting feedback for our performance, ways we can improve, or discussing a contract extension we don’t bill for those. But if we’re discussing the thing we’re building, or doing project status updates we bill for that.
We’ve never had a client push back on that.
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#39I'm a cyber security specialist (in web application security) with a few certifications and 10+ years of experience. I charge usually $350 an hour unless it's something I estimate will require the help of an outsider to which I may go as high at $1k an hour. Answering everyone asking how we find clients - I love public speaking and so I try to do as much as I can. 80% of my clients saw me speak, the other 20% come fr…
How long are your engagements?
They can go anywhere from one hour (e.g awareness training) to a full month (e.g complex web application pentest)
Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?
#40I have a 'rack rate' which is for anything short. That comes down for larger projects - say 10% for 500 hours, 15% for 1000 hours and so on.