Re: Salary Survey from STC

["Taylor, Steve" <steve -dot- taylor -at- ALLEGIANCETELECOM -dot- COM>]

I stand corrected. Please see Barry's computations below. I was just using
the averages, and forgot to figure in a few extras..If an hourly employee is
making $20 (which average about 2008 hours per year), then a contractor most
certainly would make $41 (which is the average for Dallas)...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barry Campbell [SMTP:barry -at- WEBVERANDA -dot- COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 2:25 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: Salary Survey from STC
>
> At 01:10 PM 6/10/98 -0500, Steve Taylor wrote:
>
> >Chart 3 indicates an average national contracting rate of 48.50. The
> average
> >person works 2008 hours a year. That is $97,388. If that's low, I am
> doing
> >something wrong.
>
> No offense, Steve, but you're doing something wrong: there's more
> information that needs to be factored in.
>
> First, you're assuming that every hour worked is billable.  Figure 18
> indicates that survey respondents work roughly forty hour weeks (okay,
> 38.8), but not all of that time is billable.  Figure 19 shows that, on
> average, 80% of time worked by survey respondents is billable.
>
> Let's run the new numbers:
>
> 38.8 hours/week * 52 weeks (assuming *no* vacation time or down time--
> highly questionable assumptions in my opinion, but let's let that ride
> for the moment) = 2018 hours worked in a calendar year.
>
> Now, let's estimate how many of those hours are actually billable:
>
> 2018 hours/year * average billing rate of 80% (.8) = 1614 billable hours
> per calendar year (it's not altogether clear whether vacation time or
> down time were factored into this "billable percentage".)
>
> So.  Already we're down to 1618 * 48.50) = estimated annual gross of
> $78,473
> (and, again, this may well assume *no* vacation time and *no* down time,
> since there are many tasks which must be performed in the course of doing
> business that cannot be ethically billed to a client.)
>
> Presto!  Almost $20,000 gross per annum disappears through the magic of
> statistical interpretation. :-)
>
> If you're a 1099 employee, you do your own withholding and SocSec, which
> must be escrowed against your quarterly tax payments... and after you
> pay Uncle Sugar there are *many* other overhead expenses to be factored
> in: insurance, training, equipment, investing for retirement, and so
> forth.
>
> All in all, a good contractor who stays busy and billable *can* make
> more money than a person in a staff job, but it's by no means a given.
> The extra money can be thought of either as a risk premium or as a
> reward for doing your own marketing and management--in reality, it's
> a combination of the two.
>
> I do know many technical writers, both staffers and consultants, whose
> gross 100K a year or better, by the way.
>
> On the other hand, I live in New York City, where you can qualify for
> subsidized housing, under certain circumstances, with an income of up
> to $135K a year.  Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in my
> neighborhood is $1,500; if you have an actual family with kids and dogs
> and so forth, you're looking at between two and three thousand a month
> in rent for a habitable place.
>
> Everything is relative.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Barry Campbell
> Barry Campbell * barry -at- webveranda -dot- com * 40.77 N, 73.97 W
> --
> [O]ne of the strongest motives that leads men to art
> and science is escape from everyday life with its
> painful crudity and hopeless dreariness...
> -- Albert Einstein, "Principles of Research" (1918)
>
> ~
>