Supposing there was such a thing, what would a Debian developer's hypothetical "billing rate" be?
US$300k seems like it'll fund roughly 1 proper man-year while covering indirect costs and effectively zero profit margin.
US$300k seems like it'll fund roughly 1 proper man-year while covering indirect costs and effectively zero profit margin.
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Funding
Raphael's monthly reports[1] were very insightful and explains why equivalent billing rate seems anecdotally low.
The back of the napkin $100 x 40 x 50 == $200k w2 salary is misleading. Aside from self employment tax, needed liability insurance, no health insurance subsidy, no 401k match, etc...depending on location, you can also be subject to franchise taxes, etc. And most people making $200k as a salary don't work 50 weeks a year.
The health insurance subsidies alone, at a good company, are often worth $12k+/year, for example.
Edit: after thinking about it, my comment is unfounded and probably nonsense.
My remarks assumed a rough US national average. The enterprise billing rate for top SV talent certainly exceeds ~$144/hr.
So I have to admit my comment doesn't make much sense.
My estimate was based on 2080 hrs/yr; indirect costs such as insurance coverage, paid annual/sick leave, 401(k) matching, and operating costs that one might associate with a large software distribution.
Probably worth noting that the average freelancer bills a lot lower than typical for-profit enterprise.
When I first learned what my employer charges for 1 hour of my time, I was shocked and had to completely retool how I thought about these things...and that was knowing beforehand that, by law, we're not allowed to profit, and management had artificially lowered the engineering rate 2 years in row to make up for inefficiencies on the production side, keeping the organization competitive as a whole.
Our branch's projects manifest when: 1) data rights are on lockdown and can't legally be distributed; 2) data is limited, making acquisition risk too high; or 3) bids from the private sector far exceed what acquisition estimates suggest they should reasonably be. In general, these constraints tend to keep things both interesting and challenging.
The mission is usually a big boost to your morale and engagement, but it's not the same for everyone.