The disparity exists because each scenario has different risk profiles. It's much lower risk to be an employee (you dont' have to look for work, worry about pay

The disparity exists because each scenario has different risk profiles. It's much lower risk to be an employee (you dont' have to look for work, worry about payroll, benefits), so you're salary reflects that. Similary, the employer sees a long term benefit for your skill so it's cheaper for them to have an employee in that scneario than a contractor. For a independent consultant, you carry the risk of contract termination, added headache of invoicing and looking for work, so to make it worth it, you charge more hourly then you would if you're an employee. You don't have to work 40hrs a week, but it makes your time worth it to you. For the employer, they need your skills on a temporary or project basis, or they have issues filling a permanent role (non sexy industry or company, bad location, etc). Consulting firms have overhead and margins to hit so they charge more. The benefit to the client is they get a whole team (usually), which can include UX, UI, and Engineering, and sometimes product management. For companies who can't build teams and need to execute on fixing, saving, or establishing a new product, Consulting firms can be attractive - eg, $500K for year 1 at $150/hr is cheaper than hiring 3 engineers and product manager with fully burdened and competitive salaries. Especially if you have trouble hiring good people.