[emseetech]

My rule of thumb as a contractor is to take the hourly rate x2100 to get an equivalent full-time salary plus benefits, 401k, vacation, etc.

Fractional CTO | $368k - $420k

Senior AI Engineer | €179k - €210k

Senior Full-stack Engineer | $263k - $315k

Staff Frontend Engineer | $252k - $378k

AI Engineer | $210k - $263k

Given that the rates are decent. Not the best out there but decent. I'd consider this before Upwork where contract rates are criminally low.

[LPisGood]

The normal compensation for full time work is x2080. Do you actually value 401k, benefits, time off, etc at only 20 hours wage per year?

[emseetech]

No that's not to do with benefits, I'm rounding up to 2100 for easier mental math.

The benefits calculation is a more complicated one and I've never met any two contractors who calculate it the same.

[TylerE]

Yeah but the details don't matter when you say "full time equivilant". Just health insurance alone will be far far far more than you are allowing. Then there's all the tax implications. Like, if you said 2500x I might consider beleiving you. 3000x I'd probably believe you.

[emseetech]

Every contractor already knows all this. And those who don't learn quick.

I'm not clear what you're arguing here.

When I evaluate an hourly rate, I multiply by 2100 and ask myself if this is a reasonable salary & benefits total package.

So if my rate is $125 an hour, that comes to $263k, which is a base salary of around $200k plus healthcare, self-employment taxes and sick/vacation time, etc. Now my healthcare costs might be lower than others and I don't factor in retirement because I work primarily for startups, but again this is why each contractor calculates differently.

I wouldn't multiply it by more hours if it was insufficient, I would just raise my rate.

[foolswisdom]

When I read

> My rule of thumb as a contractor is to take the hourly rate x2100 to get an equivalent full-time salary plus benefits, 401k, vacation, etc.

I thought you meant to include everything on top of salary. Reading it again after this thread, maybe you meant to this is the calculation for hourly from full time salary, and then you need to also do ("plus") a calculation for everything else.

[emseetech]

x2100 is base salary plus benefits, aka "total compensation."

So if this doesn't cover everything then charge a higher hourly rate for more money, don't change the multiplier.