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An employee at 160k costs a lot more than 190k - you can multiply by 2-3 to get the actual cost.

BTW at bleeding edge R&D labs the OH rate can be 500 -600%

Where on earth do you get the 2x-3x? Industry average mark up for recruiting companies is 30% to cover employee costs with w2 contractors.

Who ? you mean the ghastly rip off body shops?

I think you may have misunderstood what we are talking about real self-employed contractors vs FTE's

The 2-3x salary is the actual cost to an employer of a FTE (full time employee).

Where do you get 2x-3x?

3x sounds about right for France, but that's an outlier. The multiplicative factor in the US is more like 1.25x AFAIK.