[bradknowles]

In my experience, people tend to greatly underestimate how much it will cost them to pay both the employer and the employee part of insurance, as well as other expenses typically paid by an employer.

The rule of thumb I arrived at years ago was to start by dividing the annual rate by a factor of two, to account for the additional tax burden. Then to divide by an additional factor of two to account for the additional insurance burden.

Then you start factoring in your other costs.

Years ago, I was contracting with Apple Retail Software Engineering in Cupertino, and making $95/hr. I calculated that they would have to give me a $250,000 annual salary to be able to take home the same amount of money on a monthly basis, and virtually no one at Apple makes that kind of money unless they're an SVP.

So, I was actually quite happy when the contract ended and I got to go home to Austin.