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Comment by nitrogen | Hacker News Reader

$85/hr seems a decent contract rate, even affordable by many standards. Keep in mind that as a contractor your taxes are greater and there are no benefits. $25/hr is very, very low for a skilled developer (that's almost junior-year intern level).

You can also look at median salary data for a region at http://stats.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm

Edit: after looking at stats for the NY metro area, it looks like you should expect 90-110k/year on average. Make sure you're clear on your units ($/hr or k$/yr) when you negotiate.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics website says the mean hourly wage of computer programmers is $35.91

http://stats.bls.gov/oes/2009/may/oes151021.htm

Nationally, yes. $36/hr is ~$75000/yr, which is quite comfortable in many states (including Utah, which is the densest programming state listed on your link). Major metro stats are usually higher. That's after employer-provided benefits and employer-paid taxes. A $150 employee-paid group health plan could easily cost an employer $850 on top of that, and a contractor has to pay for his/her own facilities and equipment, so contracting rates necessarily should be higher than hourly wages.

Also keep in mind that national statistics, and mean statistics in general, are brought down by lower-cost states and below-market jobs writing VBA macros that got categorized as computer programmers.

A good programmer can get more than $85/hr. I know HTML/CSS people who charge $85/hr. He was suggesting $25/hr, which is what dog walkers charge. Beyond $85 you encounter people trying to haggle on price, unless you're doing something hairy for a hedge fund. $85 is a sweet spot where you can find work without too much of a headache. It's also a good litmus test. If a company tries to negotiate down from $85 it means they are going to suck to work with.

Nitrogen, as a contractor your taxes should end up being much lower. Anyone doing freelance work should absolutely hire an accountant to figure out what's deductable (meals, office space, tech gear). All of those expenses come off the top and in my experience, you end up with ~30% more dollars at the end of the day relative to what you'd end up with if you were taking a standard salary.

Perhaps, but "higher taxes" and "no benefits" are a great way to justify a higher contracting rate ;).

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