[Nursie]

You have to recognise, surely, that even for London those rates are exceptional?

The vast, vast majority of salaried software guys make far less than that, especially outside of the capital. Hell, I pull in about 75% of that much and consider myself very fortunate as a contractor. And I see ads and 'opportunities' all the time for experienced people in the 40-50k range.

About 8 years ago I moved from London to Western Aus and was immediately earning (as a permanent employee) in the six figure range, when AUD and USD were at parity. In London, doing the same job for the same company, I had been on less than £50k.