Since you are an independent contractor you have more flexibility and can move on to something else that you like very quickly, since you are picking your clien

Since you are an independent contractor you have more flexibility and can move on to something else that you like very quickly, since you are picking your clients. Once you take a regular salary job you may like it for awhile, but eventually being your own boss will creep back up and you will also see that your earning potential in the short and long term will deteriorate faster which does not happen as fast as a contractor since you can increase your rates to keep up with inflation, rise in taxes, bills, etc as you see fit. If you want to work remotely define this in your next contract. As an employee you do not have much negotiating power and do not set the terms, as an independent contractor you have more negotiation power. Also, remember that in a salaried job you may not get a bonus or a raise, normally raises are a low 3% which is gobbled up by taxes which takes you down near 1.5% raise. You also do not have the capability to work overtime and be guaranteed to get paid for every hour you work. I recommend sitting down and doing more number crunching and compare the benefits you have as an independent contractor versus a salaried employee. As an independent contractor you should be adding the costs of your profit margins, dental, health, car insurance, investments, emergency savings, vision, vacations, training, certification, continuing education, hardware, software, sick pay, etc into your hourly rate and projected costs in your proposals. Just running some rough numbers ($70 x 40) x 52 = $145,000 - 30% = $101,920, which is not much for software development especially in a major city (your underpaid). I would recommend charging more and finding a better client. Normally you should be able to get $140/hour which would be ($140 x 40) x 52 = $291,200 or $24,266.67/month before taxes. If taxes is 30% then you have around $203,840.00 a year or $16,986.67/month which is a comfortable rate for a good software engineer that is a contractor (Their own business). You may have to adjust that rate if you are still starting out but it should not go under $100 an hour ($208,000 - 30% = $145,000 or $12,133.34/month). Companies know going in that a contractor will cost more because they are their own business, they are counting on it since you should be more experienced or specialized than someone they hire as an employee. The worst thing you can do is underbid/under value yourself and the quality you provide. If you do not like the client find a higher quality one, normally the really good clients will pay more and keep you on contract longer due to the quality you provide and capabilities that are not available from an employee. You also have the wonderful opportunity to have multiple clients at one time if you choose.