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I recently reviewed the rates for all W2, 1099, and CORP Tech Writer contract jobs on Dice.com with a rate range given. Currently about fifty of the 389 such jobs on Dice give a rate range. Of these, there are a good number of $22-29 per hour jobs, a good number of $30-39 per hour jobs, and a smaller number of $40 -50 per hour jobs. I counted a total of three TW jobs that pay above $50 per hour (and one of them required someone with a programming background).
In the San Fransisco/Silicon Valley area, six of the seven jobs that I found have a pay rate pay of from $25 to $45 per hour. The seventh paid $65 per hour.
Questions:
1.) Are the jobs on Dice exceptionally poor paying? (They seem to be about right for jobs in my area (Indianapolis)).
2.) If the answer to the first question is yes, does being a Tech Writer contractor pay?
Recently on this listserv, the following permanent employee annual pay to contractor hourly pay rate conversion formula was espoused by several members: Double the permanent employee's annual pay and then divide it by 1000 to get an equivalent contractor hourly pay rate. Using the rates I found on Dice and flipping this formula around to get an equivalent permanent employee salary for a given contractor rate yields results such as the following:
* $25 per hour contracting is the same as making $12,500 a year as a permanent employee ($25,000 / 2 * 1000 = $12,500)
* $35 per hour contracting is the same as making $17,500 a year as a permanent employee ($35,000 / 2 * 1000 = $17,500)
And this assumes that the contractor has no down time!
A second recently espoused formula by members is to take permanent employee's annual pay (do NOT double it) and then divide it by 1000 to get an equivalent contractor hourly pay rate. This gives better but still depressing results when flipping it around to get a permanent employee salary from a contractor rate. Example:
* $35 per hour contracting equals $35 * 1000 = $35,00 per year as an permanent employee.
Again, the no downtime assumption applies.
Responses appreciated!
Richard Lewis
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