"The rate was significantly higher than what Bradley had paid the workers in Pakistan. (Offshore developers charge as little as twenty-five dollars an hour."
This is incredible.
This is incredible.
Even for 6 years ago, that didn't seem all that incredible.
Big pain points with 'offshore' include timezone work, language and cultural differences, missing of body language, etc. My experience has been most offshore folks are afraid to ask clarifying questions, which introduces a lot of delays over the long haul, but makes it feel at the the start of a project like things will go great.
£400 is a good day rate for a average contract programmer outside London.
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm
Median hourly rate in the US ranges about $41/hr for 'Computer Programmers' to $70/hr for 'Computer and IS Managers.' In a state like New York the rates would be even higher, perhaps much higher.