There are several reasons contracting is a popular route in the UK for techies: 1. Tax advantages, the 13.8% employer's payroll tax is avoided by be being empl

There are several reasons contracting is a popular route in the UK for techies: 1. Tax advantages, the 13.8% employer's payroll tax is avoided by be being employed as a contractor and taking your income as a dividend. 2. Tech career ladders are pretty specific to the tech industry and London just doesn't have the medium and large tech companies you see in Silicon Valley. So you hit the ceiling pretty fast and in order to be valued for your skills you pretty much have to become a contractor. This is not so different to working in tech in a non-tech organisation in the US. 3. The National Health Service means you and your family are not reliant on your employer for health insurance. Individual health insurance is super expensive in the USA. Most people I know who contract in the US have health insurance through their spouse's employer. I ended up moving to CA because of the career opportunities. I'd probably be better off contracting in the finance world in London, but most of that work just isn't very interesting.