I've found that for those with marketable skills, contracting is good value for money (anyone say exceptional?) For an experienced OO developer with 2 years commercial experience with Java and solid knowledge of internet technologies and distributed app development etc, here are some figures based on my (very recent) experiences:
London: £40-£55/hr (=$US65 - $US90)
San Francisco can match that it seems
Dublin is a little less, up to £IRL35-45 which is about £40 (or thereabouts)
New Zealand, where I'm from, $NZ60 - $NZ80/hr (=$US30-$US40/hr)
Salaries: general rule, take the hourly rate and x1000.
Contracting has income tax benefits (computers etc are tax deductable etc) and all VAT/Sales tax/GST etc is typically full recoverable on business-related expenses, which increase spending power quite some chunk indeed.
The UK is currently in a slight turmoil because of the upcoming IR35 which basically taxes sole trader companies (one man bands) at the source, making it harder to claim expenses and, the rationale is, harder to dodge taxes. Net opinion at the moment is that it's not so bad, and contractors will up their rates even more if the tax impacts income. London is quite an expensive place to live.
I haven't worked in Australia but I'd imagine that it'd pay about 20% more than NZ but in Aus$ (which are worth about 20% more than $NZ).
So why live in NZ? This is sliding off-topic, but it's a fantastically outdoorsy country. I think, like NZ, in the UK right now (and, probably everywhere actually) there is an acute shortage of good, talented people. Quality of life is very high in NZ, but internationally, it's not the cheapest place to live if you're earning local currency. It does mean that going back to NZ can mean giving the appearance of being fantastically rich : )
Well I don't think that anyone need worry. I'm in the middle of 'The Sovereign Individual' by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, and it's all about the coming economic revolution and how technology advancement will, with a high degree of probability, bring about the evolution of a much more distributed economic climate, one where, for instance, tax as a way of funding infrastructural components, no longer exists. It's pretty radical thinking, but looking at where things are now, and the inherent uncontrollability of the net which is a foundation communications infrastructure, I think it makes a lot of sense. 'User pays' everything, anyone? I haven't finished the book yet, I'm reading it as we speak, but it's a pretty awesome read. Particularly for those Tofflerans amongst you (specifically The Third Wave and Powershift as two essential reference books on global change). The Sovereign Individual at amazon
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- London: £40-£55/hr (=$US65 - $US90)
- San Francisco can match that it seems
- Dublin is a little less, up to £IRL35-45 which is about £40 (or thereabouts)
- New Zealand, where I'm from, $NZ60 - $NZ80/hr (=$US30-$US40/hr)
Salaries: general rule, take the hourly rate and x1000.Contracting has income tax benefits (computers etc are tax deductable etc) and all VAT/Sales tax/GST etc is typically full recoverable on business-related expenses, which increase spending power quite some chunk indeed.
The UK is currently in a slight turmoil because of the upcoming IR35 which basically taxes sole trader companies (one man bands) at the source, making it harder to claim expenses and, the rationale is, harder to dodge taxes. Net opinion at the moment is that it's not so bad, and contractors will up their rates even more if the tax impacts income. London is quite an expensive place to live.
I haven't worked in Australia but I'd imagine that it'd pay about 20% more than NZ but in Aus$ (which are worth about 20% more than $NZ).
So why live in NZ? This is sliding off-topic, but it's a fantastically outdoorsy country. I think, like NZ, in the UK right now (and, probably everywhere actually) there is an acute shortage of good, talented people. Quality of life is very high in NZ, but internationally, it's not the cheapest place to live if you're earning local currency. It does mean that going back to NZ can mean giving the appearance of being fantastically rich : )
Well I don't think that anyone need worry. I'm in the middle of 'The Sovereign Individual' by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, and it's all about the coming economic revolution and how technology advancement will, with a high degree of probability, bring about the evolution of a much more distributed economic climate, one where, for instance, tax as a way of funding infrastructural components, no longer exists. It's pretty radical thinking, but looking at where things are now, and the inherent uncontrollability of the net which is a foundation communications infrastructure, I think it makes a lot of sense. 'User pays' everything, anyone? I haven't finished the book yet, I'm reading it as we speak, but it's a pretty awesome read. Particularly for those Tofflerans amongst you (specifically The Third Wave and Powershift as two essential reference books on global change).
The Sovereign Individual at amazon
cheers!