I would say that depends entirely on the subcontractor and your relationship with him/her. Someone you're bringing on just to meet availability demands, maybe.

I would say that depends entirely on the subcontractor and your relationship with him/her. Someone you're bringing on just to meet availability demands, maybe. Someone who is already well known and respected for what they do, you should be prepared to offer a better deal for. In fact, you may end up being able to raise your own outgoing rate if you find folks willing to work for you who are really great. But of course, the risk does end up in the hands of who owns the contract. And if there isn't sufficient trust with between you and your subs, a premium helps protect you from that. But this practice may be keeping you locked into a cycle of only getting help from low to mid skill level developers, who end up going elsewhere once they've grown a bit more.