Contractor Vs Permie rates

[DanielAnthony]

After a brief stint contracting I've gone back to permiedom as the salaries for permies are almost as good as contractors in my field and I can't really understand why.

I mean, MCITP and VCP certified professionals command a contracting day rate of about £300pd, in the South East where I'm based. I've seen many permie jobs for the same people offering up to £55,000pa which is what I've achieved plus all the extras (pension, bonus, health care, training etc). Plus some of these contracting roles require expensive train journeys or staying away from home which further eats into the profits.

Plus the number of permie jobs > contracting roles here, with the recession and all that I thought companies would be looking to use a more flexible workforce. I suppose I'm just disappointed as I enjoyed the contracting whilst it lasted and hoped the rates would be better (£500pd+) to make permie jobs look totally unattractive.

I understand that not all skill sets fit into this category, Java seems to be one where the contractor rate looks great most of the time (£400-£500pd) but the permie salaries look rubbish (£30-£40k) on the job sites I've looked at.

Can anyone enlighten me why this is the case?

[stek]

Experience?

[DaveB]

After a brief stint contracting I've gone back to permiedom as the salaries for permies are almost as good as contractors in my field and I can't really understand why.

I mean, MCITP and VCP certified professionals command a contracting day rate of about £300pd, in the South East where I'm based. I've seen many permie jobs for the same people offering up to £55,000pa which is what I've achieved plus all the extras (pension, bonus, health care, training etc). Plus some of these contracting roles require expensive train journeys or staying away from home which further eats into the profits.

Plus the number of permie jobs > contracting roles here, with the recession and all that I thought companies would be looking to use a more flexible workforce. I suppose I'm just disappointed as I enjoyed the contracting whilst it lasted and hoped the rates would be better (£500pd+) to make permie jobs look totally unattractive.

I understand that not all skill sets fit into this category, Java seems to be one where the contractor rate looks great most of the time (£400-£500pd) but the permie salaries look rubbish (£30-£40k) on the job sites I've looked at.

Can anyone enlighten me why this is the case?

MCITP and VCP certs are generally aimed at administrator and support roles, a large chunk of which have been outsourced overseas. They've also suffered from "Paper qualified" candidates driving down rates. Companies wanting people with these certs as permies will be looking for a wider range of skills and experience that just the qualifications, hence the higher permie rates by comparason.

[nomadd]

...Java seems to be one where the contractor rate looks great most of the time (£400-£500pd) but the permie salaries look rubbish (£30-£40k) on the job sites I've looked at.

Can anyone enlighten me why this is the case?

Because Java is a very "broad church." You need to compare like-with-like. The top end rates (£500+) tend to be for specialists in IBs. And permie rates for those jobs are also high (Jobserve has been showing 100+ Java permie roles paying over £100k for months now...)