These are all very good points, as patio said, it's very handwaivy. It depends on insurance, how much of the cost do they push to you vs accept themselves. Do

These are all very good points, as patio said, it's very handwaivy. It depends on insurance, how much of the cost do they push to you vs accept themselves. Do they match 401k. do they have vacation you enjoy? All of that adds to their overhead on top of your salary. The fixed part is that 20% overhead which is to maintain the recruiters, HR, contract admin guys who do all the work so you don't have to market yourself. As he said, if you want the full rate go off on your own, but before you do that I'd suggest you listen to some guys who talk about it. There's a .NET rocks podcast that talks about this because the guy says you can't work 100% for any given contract. You've got to be working towards the next one. So even if you go work for yourself you either work 40+ hrs or you bill at 35 hr a week and market yourself for 5+ to make sure your next gig is always there. Also, you have to factor in how much your consulting agency pays you for stuff into your salary. 0 days PTO? Well it seems like you're going to have to bump your salary by 10-15% in order to break even on a salary job? Paid overtime? Well you might knock that down a bit. It all balances out.