State of the Market

[rootsnall]

This reminds of a time during my early years in IT, earning £22k as a SAP "consultant" (trainee ABAP more like it): I bumped into a heavy-set fellow in his 30s at a strip joint where he'd clearly had a few to drink and was bragging about earning £140k as a Java contractor. I simply nodded and laughed along with him as if to say that yes IT was great and I was earning loads of money too I think a dance back then was £10 or something and clearly this guy was throwing his cash about. Lucky him I thought.

This was around 1998 I think. Back then you could have bought a 3 bed semi in my area (near Heathrow) for £90k. Now that same road is selling houses at £500k+.

£140k now as a contractor is still considered good, but it really has so much less buying power here. Add to that the increase in taxes and IR35 in April. The cost of living in UK has decimated standards of living, compared to 20 years ago.

Mid 90s was crazy really, my skillset was on 600-650 a day, our permie managers were on £30oddK salary.

[BigDataPro]

...
I just switched on the LinkedIn profile to "open to job opportunities", so I suppose it is working.

I have 3 months to run in my current FTC. Therefore, the Welwyn Garden gig (*) is not that appealing to me given the offered advertised contract rate. (Tescos digital, who knows???)

I also live down south, 1 hour commute to London Euston (2019). How is it going in the rest of the UK for early January?

Welwyn Garden gig?? Must be Tesco . I am getting a lot of Data Engineering roles contracts & perm, even though I am not looking. Looks like Data is the new Java of 2021s

[1manshow]

How many days per year do you reckon contractors work typically?

I think this varies widely, for example my company doesn’t have furlough periods and over the last 3 years I’d say I averaged over 245 days a year (I promise I have a life, this was circumstantial!).

[Fraidycat]

Mid 90s was crazy really, my skillset was on 600-650 a day, our permie managers were on £30oddK salary.

From what i remember for developers early & mid nineties £30 to £40 per hour was the going rate.
Late nineties it was 40 to 60 per hour.
Dot com bubble 2000 & 2001 rates were £50 to 100ph.


Current state of the market, 2021 is still £50 to £100ph for developers.

Although hourly rates were more common back then, now contracts are mostly daily rates

One good thing about the hourly rates, they tended to pay more over time than daily rates do.

So even if you were on £40 ph back in the early nineties you could of been pulling in over 100K with paid over time.

[NowPermOutsideUK]

Chimp master said it well. Even 650 a day outside ir35 no longer buys what it used to and house prices is one example of that

Reality is 650 a day is now realistically 550 a fat and all inside ir35 which means the same job for the same experience but at a different time is now really going to result in almost half of what it used to.

Sad news but true

[Paralytic]

Reality is 650 a day is now realistically 550 a fat and all inside ir35 which means the same job for the same experience but at a different time is now really going to result in almost half of what it used to.

Even for you LondonPM1, that is completely incomprehensible.

650 is now 550 but is actually nearer half of that?

[ResistanceFighter]

picked up an outside contract at the start of the month for 3 months with a look to extend. Day rate is one of the lowest I have ever taken, but I'm of the mindset now that something is better than nothing

[Fraidycat]

650 is now 550 but is actually nearer half of that?

650 a day outside IR35 leaves you with about 11K a month to play with after corp tax.

Some of that you could recently take as tax free divis (before they raised divi tax rates)

The rest you could retain and reinvest in your company,

If rates have dropped to £550 a day and you also get hit with IR35 that is just 5.5K a month in your pocket to play with.

So instead of having 11K a month to play with, now you have just 5.5K

[Fraidycat]

picked up an outside contract at the start of the month for 3 months with a look to extend. Day rate is one of the lowest I have ever taken, but I'm of the mindset now that something is better than nothing

Wise, not only is something better than nothing, its also better for your mental health and stress levels.

Especially if you have a highly conscientious and hardworking personality. Highly conscientious people suffer more than most when they have no work to do.

[GhostofTarbera]

650 a day outside IR35 leaves you with about 11K a month to play with after corp tax.

Some of that you could recently take as tax free divis (before they raised divi tax rates)

The rest you could retain and reinvest in your company,

If rates have dropped to £550 a day and you also get hit with IR35 that is just 5.5K a month in your pocket to play with.

So instead of having 11K a month to play with, now you have just 5.5K

Food bank time on that sort of income


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