Go permament?

[expat]

They say a good rule of thumb is that a contract rate of £xx/hour corresponds to a permie salary of £xx,000/year.

Lookig on Jobstats today, 18 of the top 20 skills, and 19 of the top 20 locations, pay correspondingly more on salary than contract rate.

Is it time to think that contracting is dying, and go over to the Dark Side?

[expat]

Thats total rubbish that rule. I find it's approximately rate x 1750 in my case. I went from a measly technical architect role up the pay scale by about £25k when I started a company and I have ZERO expenses.

I do a LOT of other paid work as well as I'm a Limited company! Last weekend I was dangling out of ceilings installing cables.

It's a "rule of thumb". Naturally it supposes the same conditions for both options (holiday, sick leave, training, pensions, etc). If you don't count these things into the contract calculation, then of course it will look better.

If you don't count these things into the contract calculation because you don't do them, that's fair enough; but I'd see that as a reason why you personally fit contracting better, not as a flaw in the figures.

Incidentally you could do other paid work while being an employee too, that doesn't alter the balance.

[Shimano105]

Go permie?

I'd rather cut my c0ck off with a rusty bread knife

[Gold Dalek]

They say a good rule of thumb is that a contract rate of £xx/hour corresponds to a permie salary of £xx,000/year.

Lookig on Jobstats today, 18 of the top 20 skills, and 19 of the top 20 locations, pay correspondingly more on salary than contract rate.

Is it time to think that contracting is dying, and go over to the Dark Side?

Think

Yearly 360 degrees reviews

Mandatory: HR ' personal development' & Diversity courses

Colleagues who should have been fired years ago

2.5% annual pay rises

Company 'restructuring' exercises where you actually give a toss rather than see it as an opportunity


...& think again

[expat]

Think

Yearly 360 degrees reviews

Mandatory: HR ' personal development' & Diversity courses

Colleagues who should have been fired years ago

2.5% annual pay rises

Company 'restructuring' exercises where you actually give a toss rather than see it as an opportunity


...& think again

Gang-bang interviews, rank-and-spank annual reviews, requirements over-and-above getting the job done, yes, it all comes back to me now.

Contracting is not about the money.

[n5gooner]

Go permie?

I'd rather cut my c0ck off with a rusty bread knife

ha ha - I would tend to agree ! I'd rather cut your c0ck off then go permie!

[Gold Dalek]

Contracting is not about the money.

Ahem!!!

[Fungus]

Thats total rubbish that rule. I find it's approximately rate x 1750 in my case. I went from a measly technical architect role up the pay scale by about £25k when I started a company and I have ZERO expenses.

I do a LOT of other paid work as well as I'm a Limited company! Last weekend I was dangling out of ceilings installing cables.

That's my experience too. It's balls. Unless you factor in huge and unrealistic benefits of the kind that no permie I know gets.

Of course this assumes you have no long "rest periods". If you do have long rest periods, then the rule might hold.

If you are lazy and good at politics, go permie. If you are tulipe at backstabbing, and at least half decent technically, go contract.

Fungus

[expat]

Thats total rubbish that rule. I find it's approximately rate x 1750 in my case.

Really? Are we still comparing like with like here?

Suppose an employment contract of 40 hours per week including lunch hour, with 4 weeks annual leave, 8 days public holidays (both are the legal minimum) and no sick leave, no training, no allowance for looking for work. Then the employee works 233 days at 7 hours actual working time: 1631 hours per year worked and paid.

(Annual salary equivalent = 1750 x rate) would imply working 2006 hours per year (because the contractor will pay employer's NICs which the employee won't, so 2006 hours - 12.8% = 1750 hours). That's a lot more than the employee.

You may make more money than the employee, because you work more hours. But that's not comparing like with like.

[expat]

My calculation comes from the fact that I charge loads for blocks of private work. Up to £1200 a day on some types of work (emergency recovery in particular!).

I work contract for 9 months a year and the rest is booked as "other" work for the company. It doesn't matter how much I "earn" on an hourly basis, just what I earn through a) salary and b) additional through dividends from the profit.

It's not comparable like to like as you say. It depends on your initiative.

Then it's more like a personal account of how you make good money, than a comment on the originsal question.

What? That's normal? Oh, right.....