[huhtenberg]

Let's not get carried away here. A quick poll:

  If you are in a position to hire devs (with a proper 
  budget for it), would you hire this gentleman for $80/h
  knowing that he is a 2nd year EE student in Australia?

Given the circumstances, I'd have hard time justifying $40/h. Not because $80 is too high, but because of the inherent performance risks associated with this particular type of hire.

[bigiain]

For "hiring as a dev", $40/hr seems in the right ballpark.

For freelance work, I've paid well over $100/hr to people with similar age/experience based on nothing more than portfolios similar to his and a plausible sounding phone-screen.

I've contracted students for work, and while I'm more likely to propose payment terms based on estimated hours with payment on milestone delivery rather than just hourly rates, I'll still assume a similar overall "hourly rate".

(That's in Sydney, Australia.)

[eibrahim]

$30 to $40 is reasonable...

[derrida]

Not in Australia. Minimum wage is ~$20/hour +/- $2 (That's about $22US). But you know, income is more equal here, so we don't have the highs. I think $60-$80/hour considering it is freelance.