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@lsc also noticed the same in the UK an average contract developer ten years ago outside of London was paid £350 a day, today it's still the same, whilst perman

@lsc also noticed the same in the UK an average contract developer ten years ago outside of London was paid £350 a day, today it's still the same, whilst permanent jobs have gone up by 25% annually. In development atleast contracting is looked down upon

mattmanser 8y ago
An average developer outside of London is paid £45k, which is massively less than £350 a day. Cwjobs reckons contractors are on £93k avg while full time employees are on £52k avg, including London. That's not even close. https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-programmer-salary https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-programmer-s...
- alkonaut 8y ago
  45k is a salary and 350/day is a contract. The former I assume contains some job security, paid vacation, sick days etc. I’d probably charge twice my current daily income if I switched to contracting and still not feel it was a great deal.
  - badpun 8y ago
    The real kicker in the UK are contractors’ taxes, which are much lower than full timers’. It really makes little financial sense to work a full time job.
adav 8y ago
> In development atleast contracting is looked down upon Would you mind elaborating on why you think contractors are looked down upon? In my experience – as a full-time and contract developer working in London – the opposite seems true. Contractors on a team are usually senior developers and when the best of them move contracts (or aren't extended), I've seen full-timers leave (or switch teams) shortly after. More junior developers lose the person they were most learning from. Teams looking after specific projects have died because of this. I have heard snarky comments about pay though. If a contractor is talking about going out for lunch, it's often followed by an insinuation that they're more loaded.
- CM30 8y ago
  Depends on the contractor and the team. If the contractor is a senior developer with actual experience who genuinely knows how to code, people will treat them well. However, for every one of those, there seem to be about ten terrible developers working on a contract or freelance basis. People whose knowledge of web development has mostly frozen in the mid 00s, who end up causing more bugs than they fix, who leave security holes everywhere and end up causing untold amounts of grief as clients rightfully get hacked off and yell down the phone at the people working with them. These types of people are who a decent percentage of UK developers and companies think of, and they don't exactly paint a rosy picture of the work style.
- amriksohata 8y ago
  I agree in London it's different, but for the rest of us, there is a snarky attitude towards contractors earning a lot more often to leave the project before go live

mattmanser 8y ago

An average developer outside of London is paid £45k, which is massively less than £350 a day. Cwjobs reckons contractors are on £93k avg while full time employees are on £52k avg, including London. That's not even close. https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-programmer-salary https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-programmer-s...

alkonaut 8y ago
45k is a salary and 350/day is a contract. The former I assume contains some job security, paid vacation, sick days etc. I’d probably charge twice my current daily income if I switched to contracting and still not feel it was a great deal.
- badpun 8y ago
  The real kicker in the UK are contractors’ taxes, which are much lower than full timers’. It really makes little financial sense to work a full time job.

adav 8y ago

> In development atleast contracting is looked down upon Would you mind elaborating on why you think contractors are looked down upon? In my experience – as a full-time and contract developer working in London – the opposite seems true. Contractors on a team are usually senior developers and when the best of them move contracts (or aren't extended), I've seen full-timers leave (or switch teams) shortly after. More junior developers lose the person they were most learning from. Teams looking after specific projects have died because of this. I have heard snarky comments about pay though. If a contractor is talking about going out for lunch, it's often followed by an insinuation that they're more loaded.

CM30 8y ago
Depends on the contractor and the team. If the contractor is a senior developer with actual experience who genuinely knows how to code, people will treat them well. However, for every one of those, there seem to be about ten terrible developers working on a contract or freelance basis. People whose knowledge of web development has mostly frozen in the mid 00s, who end up causing more bugs than they fix, who leave security holes everywhere and end up causing untold amounts of grief as clients rightfully get hacked off and yell down the phone at the people working with them. These types of people are who a decent percentage of UK developers and companies think of, and they don't exactly paint a rosy picture of the work style.
amriksohata 8y ago
I agree in London it's different, but for the rest of us, there is a snarky attitude towards contractors earning a lot more often to leave the project before go live