[leknarf]

There's definitely a glass ceiling on developer salaries that tends to cap developer salaries at around 150k. That's problematic for the profession, given how early someone can max out his earnings early in his career. A proficient developer with 5 years development experience can earn 125k fairly easily, which is around 80% of the apparent industry max. So there's not much incentive to improve one's craft beyond the minimum in a salaried track.

Most devs I know who've broken above 150k fall into one of two categories: startup founders or freelancers. That clearly resonates with the "break from the pack" pitch in the article. The founder path is difficult and risky, but fairly understood at this point (no one is surprised if a successful startup pays their founders well).

Conversely, A lot of people are surprised by how much a successful freelancer can earn. There's still an industry misconception that the skilled people must prefer salaried work and that contractors are somehow in a second tier. But 150k is a fairly easy goal to hit for a new freelancer. Someone billing at 125/hr for 1,200 hours will reach that in pre-tax dollars.

That's only assuming a 60% utilization rate (there are around 2,000 total billable hours in a year). Booking a few more hours or slightly increasing the rate lets freelancers dramatically exceed their in-house peers. Most experienced freelancers I know are earning around 2-4x what they earned as a salaried employee.