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Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

devquarterly.com

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Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#11

Post by commandlinefan »

notdang wrote: post #6
quxbar wrote: post #3

Is developer pay in Cyprus and Malaysia really so great, or do a few digital nomads just have their lives really well optimized?

That's not the salary. That's how much the agency is charging for them.

I did a stint as a "contractor" at a body-shop consultancy back in the 90's, only a few years out of college. Although they did pay well compared to what I could get as a perm employee, they were charging THREE TIMES what they were paying me. The friction that this caused was a deal breaker: the project manager knew that I was costing as much as quadruple what their ordinary employees were costing them, and expected 4x the output.

Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#12

Post by lvice »

Hourly rates seem very off for Italy as well, as the real average is much much lower to the declared $80/hr (web&software). It is especially suspicious that France ($64/hr) and Germany ($55/hr) have a much lower hourly rate, when in reality salaries and rates in these countries are at least 20-30% higher than Italy.

Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#15

Post by pc86 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #11
notdang wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the salary. That's how much the agency is charging for them.

I did a stint as a "contractor" at a body-shop consultancy back in the 90's, only a few years out of college. Although they did pay well compared to what I could get as a perm employee, they were charging THREE TIMES what they were paying me. The friction that this caused was a deal breaker: the project manager knew that I was costing as much as quadruple what their ordinary employees were costing them, and expected…

3x seems reasonable.

I've subcontracted out to folks, and even at a 2x markup, with the coordination, review, and other unbillable activities I made almost no profit. As a percentage, it was barely worth even having the initial leverage and I rarely did it (at 2x markup) unless it was strictly to meet a deadline. In large orgs where profit is a requirement for just about every interaction I can see how 3x or 4x would be necessary to justify doing the work in the first place.

Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#16

Post by Etheryte »

Given how wildly the framework usage [1] differs from the long-standing and well known State of JS survey results [2], I'd be fairly wary of anything else they claim. Not saying the results are wrong, probably just different samples, more so that it seems the variance is way too high to get any useful insights.

[1] https://devquarterly.com/report/q2_2020/web#developers_worki...

[2] https://2019.stateofjs.com/front-end-frameworks/

Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#17

Post by hyperpape »

notdang wrote: post #6
quxbar wrote: post #3

Is developer pay in Cyprus and Malaysia really so great, or do a few digital nomads just have their lives really well optimized?

That's not the salary. That's how much the agency is charging for them.

Sure, but that applies to all the numbers. The average agency developer in a country that shows up with $30 in this survey isn't making that either (India is at $36, and I've heard talk of $15 or lower wages there).

The percentage that is overhead will vary, but only by so much. Otherwise, someone will come along and find a way to undercut your prices and take your business. It's reasonable to assume that if one hourly cost is double another, the developer's pay is higher.

(Not denying someone might find a way to really pull a scam in the short-term, and find a kid they can pay minimum wage to, but that's not a scalable or stable arrangement).

Re: Analysis of dev agencies with hourly rates, team size and tech stack

#18

Post by mistrial9 »

notdang wrote: post #6
quxbar wrote: post #3

Is developer pay in Cyprus and Malaysia really so great, or do a few digital nomads just have their lives really well optimized?

That's not the salary. That's how much the agency is charging for them.

an early consulting contract in the USA for me was, to retrieve the code and data from a State University department.. the contract was for >$10k per month, yet the graduate students who built it were paid miniumum wage.. records were in the collection. The school would not release the code+data for years, apparently, with infinite excuses and stalling, never a "no"
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