Reply to: US vs UK Contracting & IT Salary Rates

[MarillionFan]

Fish and Barrel springs to mind.

[andy]

Milan works 8 days a week.

excluding tape changing profession

[Francko]

You are miskaten. Nobody in IT works for 6 days a week in the entire world.

Milan works 8 days a week.

[andy]

You are miskaten. Nobody in IT works for 6 days a week in the entire world.

[sunnysan]

6Days

When I was there the guys didnt work weekends, where does this 6 day week come from? News to me

[Not So Wise]

When Jobswerve suddenly started inundating me with job ads from the USA after Christmas, the rates were low for my line of work.

Don't forget to take into account cost of living, general rule of thumb, don't go by exchange rate, go at a $1=£1 comparison to get it balanced out.

Barring NYC, the cost of living in the whole of the USA is cheaper than the UK and even NYC is only comparable on rent prices. Also further south you go the cheaper it gets.

Not that much of a contractor market in the states though, they have such crap employee rights that they don't really need to hire contractors, they can just hire and fire permies with relative ease instead. Also from what I know virtually impossible to get H1B visa sponsorship for a "contractor" approved.

Another thing to factor in, in the US 6 day working week, 9/10 hours per day is so common it is pretty much the standard for IT (even though your "official" hours will 40/45 hours per week, the extra will be unpaid overtime)

[Cowboy Bob]

Just remember that in the US the working conditions are really bad. You'll be in a cubicle with 7 days holiday a year max and will be expected to work 14 hour days, 6 days a week.

[MarillionFan]

"rent of a flat would be $650 instead of £650. So you don't need to earn as much."

All expenses are paid for.

[Ardesco]

Anybody know what rates in Canada are like?


I'm definetly interested in upping sticks and getting out of this country in the next few years and canada seems like a good idea. (Plan B brings in a modist income that looks much better with the exchange rate as it is right now).

If you live on the southern border of Canada commuting into the USA is a feasible option and from what I can work out the cost of living is slightly cheaper in Canada.

[sasguru]

A good rule of thumb (outside the expensive cities) is that your outgoings in dollars will be equivalent to what you would pay in pounds here e.g. rent of a flat would be $650 instead of £650. So you don't need to earn as much.
But if you want to save money to bring back, it's crap ....

[DimPrawn]

$650 a day plus expenses. Is that good, is that bad? I don't know?

It also appears that no-one on here knows either. Which surprises me!

Anyone. Anyone out there?

Now if you intend to do it for the experience, then $650 in the USA will go a long way and you will have a good living.

If you intend to do this to make money to bring back here, then $650 is about £330 which is not that great really.

[sunnysan]

Low Rates

I know it differs from city to city but from what I understand the cost of living ia WAY lower then the UK so for about 60-70K $ you will live better than here.

I dont know if this holds true for NY/SF though.

[milanbenes]

MF,

how are you going to run your empire from the US of A ?

To answer your question, I think you MF, are indeed out there.

Milan.

[wendigo100]

When Jobswerve suddenly started inundating me with job ads from the USA after Christmas, the rates were low for my line of work.

[MarillionFan]

http://www.jobstats.com/jobstats.d/O...Resources.html