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$45/hour is a good rate for Ukrainian developers, I think. Or Philippines developers. That’s about USD $90,000/year. This is good money, if you live remotely

$45/hour is a good rate for Ukrainian developers, I think. Or Philippines developers. That’s about USD $90,000/year. This is good money, if you live remotely in a lower cost of living, foreign country. But it’s a mediocre salary in the United States. You can barely pay your expensive rent with $90k/year. Actually, you’d be at poverty level. And there is zero possibility of affording a house with this salary. But you might be able to eke by if you live in the less competitive Midwest.

dstick 6y ago
The only issue is billable hours - will these be 100%? If the platform has that liquidity, then yes - if not, chasing assignments and lowering prices leads to a race to the bottom.
MattGaiser 6y ago
The poverty line for a family of 4 is $26,500 USD. [0] Median full time income in the USA is $35,977. [1] 90,000 is well away from poverty. [0] https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics,a%20base%20year%20of%201980 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_....
- jcun4128 6y ago
  4 people? That's nuts I was making that washing plates as a single person no dependents. I think maybe less actually after taxes.
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    You were probably making that in California though, not WV or SC. Houses are less than a year of developer pay there.
    - jcun4128 6y ago
      I was in KS and I was just paid "highly" eg. $12+/hr although I was multi-role edit: maybe less was making $11-12/hr and not full time, my math was off. I was freelancing on the side though before I got into the industry but yeah $20K range was my figure at that time eg. just over 3 years ago(it did suck, I was mad broke still am but working on it).
hujo 6y ago
I'm sorry, but this is an absurd statement. You can live very comfortably the vast majority of places in the US on $90,000. If you can't you're in one of the most expensive cities, pay a huge amount of debt servicing, or simply have unreasonable standards of what you think "necessities" are.
drran 6y ago
$45/hour can be $0 per year on SO. Adjust your expectations.
seabird 6y ago
Wow, sometimes this site really needs to exit the stratosphere and come back down to earth. I live in the Midwest and you can comfortably pay a mortgage on a sizable house, all utilities, all necessities, and still have a shitload left over to play with on a salary like that. By no means do you have to "eke by." I think the issue is a lot less that the Midwest is less competitive and a lot more that the cost of living in a West Coast tech bubble is exorbitant.

dstick 6y ago

The only issue is billable hours - will these be 100%? If the platform has that liquidity, then yes - if not, chasing assignments and lowering prices leads to a race to the bottom.

MattGaiser 6y ago

The poverty line for a family of 4 is $26,500 USD. [0] Median full time income in the USA is $35,977. [1] 90,000 is well away from poverty. [0] https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics,a%20base%20year%20of%201980 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_....

jcun4128 6y ago
4 people? That's nuts I was making that washing plates as a single person no dependents. I think maybe less actually after taxes.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  You were probably making that in California though, not WV or SC. Houses are less than a year of developer pay there.
  - jcun4128 6y ago
    I was in KS and I was just paid "highly" eg. $12+/hr although I was multi-role edit: maybe less was making $11-12/hr and not full time, my math was off. I was freelancing on the side though before I got into the industry but yeah $20K range was my figure at that time eg. just over 3 years ago(it did suck, I was mad broke still am but working on it).

hujo 6y ago

I'm sorry, but this is an absurd statement. You can live very comfortably the vast majority of places in the US on $90,000. If you can't you're in one of the most expensive cities, pay a huge amount of debt servicing, or simply have unreasonable standards of what you think "necessities" are.

drran 6y ago

$45/hour can be $0 per year on SO. Adjust your expectations.

seabird 6y ago

Wow, sometimes this site really needs to exit the stratosphere and come back down to earth. I live in the Midwest and you can comfortably pay a mortgage on a sizable house, all utilities, all necessities, and still have a shitload left over to play with on a salary like that. By no means do you have to "eke by." I think the issue is a lot less that the Midwest is less competitive and a lot more that the cost of living in a West Coast tech bubble is exorbitant.