[b20000]

a while ago i juggled 2 contracting gigs. they each paid X per hour which is a quarter to half of what you need as a full time self employed person in CA. employees in companies hiring contractors do not understand the math of self employment and thus expect unrealisticly low hourly rates. so we end up with this situation. i found that the max hourly rate for software development in general is about double of western europe. however, the cost of living there is a quarter of what it is in CA. TL;DR companies in CA in general are unaware of the enormous cost of living in CA partly driven by FAANGs. so anyone not working in FAANG ends up juggling multiple jobs. sort of like baristas but not yet as bad.