> only paid $45,000 a year
Reading this kind of thing on HN makes me feel ill; my W-2 says $47k. Maybe I need to make some changes.
Reading this kind of thing on HN makes me feel ill; my W-2 says $47k. Maybe I need to make some changes.
Aside from that, contracting can help get bump your salary up. Fresh out of college I was making less than $47k and then easily tripled my salary within a year of contracting (although I was working insane hours and basically used all of my allotted overtime hours). It isn't always great for mental health or work/life balance, but it can be a great shot in the arm in terms of providing needed work experience and money.
So if anyone has resources for a web developer in Portland looking to break into contracting, I'd love to hear from you.
That said, take a look at this: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Portland-OR/Sal... The median salary for an SE in Portland is $67k.
So, yeah, it's negotiating time.
If for nothing else, you should have a business just so you can claim more expenses and reduce the amount you have to pay Uncle Sam (from my understanding, all you need to have is a profit motive -- not necessarily profits).
Plus you don't get taxed at source so you can take that extra 30%+ you get each paycheck to pay a tax person to figure this all out for you in time to save up for the tax hit at the end of the year.