Given your current tax burden, $3k/mo take home is a joke. I'm in a similar position as you, Laravel/PHP dev working on a highly specialized platform and my take home is a bit over $6k/mo after taxes (in Texas) with full benefits.

I have to track my hours because I work for an agency that bills it's time to clients, but for the most part, I'm working on one/two Jira tickets in a day so it's fairly manageable. 4 hours spent on one ticket, 2 hours on another, and an hour or two of meetings per day (stand ups, grooming, etc). Some days I work on one ticket and call it quits.

Don't sell yourself short. You're worth a hell of a lot more than you're making now. I think you have every right to demand double your take home pay, at least.

Thanks for a great comment! Seeing your comment and other encouraging comments here on HN, I had a call with the startup this morning.

I basically said: "Now that I have to log my every hour, it got me thinking about my hourly price. Some of my friends (actually referring to HN people as you understand here) are making $250/h. I'm making $37/h. Are we able to increase my price?"

And they basically said: "We don't have any more money to pay you. Yes, I too can see some of my friends with nicer houses and clothes, but so what. We're building this startup and we all make sacrifices."

Well, they do offer me a percentage after a few years, but the company isn't worth anything right now, so this does not motivate ma at all. They own 99% of the company anyways.

And this is what I said to them. And they told me to come back in a few days and see if there are any other arrangements we can make (like give me a part of the company or something like this).

I don't now. Let's see what they say, but probably I'll need to start looking for something else.

That salary is a gigantic joke and you should immediately start looking elsewhere or be clear that for that salary you expect to work for about 10 - 20 hours a week, flexibly.

Thanks for this. I had a call with the startup today (see my comment above).

> I'm currently making 6,000 USD per month. After paying my taxes, this leaves me around 3,000 USD to spend each month.

Just curious, why is your blended tax rate 50%

It's USD, but is OP based in the US? There may also be some other deductions (retirement, etc) that are being taken out which mentally gets lumped in as 'taxes' but aren't taxes.

As a contractor, that's about right when you include healthcare coverage -- in the US, of course.

that's likely not even remotely correct. for someone earning in that range, i'd expect more like 25-30% (including health insurance) - should be less if/when you start to work at tax reduction.

I've been solo contracting for > 10 years and have never had to pay anywhere close to 50% in taxes/insurance.

How many family members are you insuring? What kind of insurance? Those all play a pivotal role.

2 adults at $1000/month.

They do play somewhat of a role, but... again, for someone pulling in $72k - even as a single person, they may be paying ~20% of their income in taxes. Assume $12k for insurance - maybe another 18% - this might be approximately 40%.

Married and with kids might increase health insurance, but would reduce taxes because of deductions.

Locality - local/state taxes might increase this - I'm in a mid-level tax state - not no taxes, but not a New York.

Someone earning $72k who is married would have a $24k deduction - they'd be paying taxes on max $48k. MFJ status with no kids earning $72k would be < $6k in federal taxes.

Single earner at $72k - federal income tax in US is ~$8900. It's not nothing but that's nowhere near 50%.

Toptal salaries for Sr. software engineer range between 41/hr and 75/hr gross, so I think yours should fall within that range.

https://www.glassdoor.sg/Salary/Toptal-US-Salaries-EI_IE8820...

Edit: See also X-team salaries:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/X-Team-Salaries-E1274500.ht...

between 40/hr and 60/hr.

Why did you pick Toptal? From those numbers, their technical people are grossly underpaid. $85k/year for their Director of Engineering? That's laughable.

Toptal gets away with massively underpaying Sr Devs by hiring them from relatively cheap countries where that money goes a long way.

A US-based Sr Dev contractor working remotely, making 75/hr, is being massively ripped off if they're capable of working with any even remotely commercially viable technology.

I think the numbers on Glassdoor are representing actual Toptal employees, not their contractors.

Could be, but if so their employees are insanely underpaid

Your rate would be about normal for someone just starting out in their career, in a 3rd- or 4th-tier city with a local employer. On salary, not contract. So give them another, oh, $15-20K/yr to account for 7.5% employer-paid FICA and benefits.

IOW it is very, very low for a contracting rate just about anywhere in the US. It's under normal for a junior in flyover country. If you're getting a bunch of free time out of this gig, consider going part-time without changing what you're asking. $6k/m is what you could charge for a per-week commitment of 10-20 hours (depending on your experience, stack, et c). Then either officially slack off during your down time since you're not "on the clock" at all, or take other gigs. Or jump ship. You can easily beat that rate somewhere else, with a remote job, and probably locally unless you live nowhere near anything resembling a city. Most jobs that'd pay you double that (or more) won't have you killing yourself with work, either, though your workload might be higher than it is now.

Thanks! I had a call with the startup today about my price (see my full comment above).

But basically they said they don't have any more money and we should all work with what is possible right now.

Wat...

8 years of experience, doing mostly frontend dev, some UX design, and occasionally some full-stack.

Rule of thumb: Whatever you were making as a full-time employee, divide your annual salary by 2,000 to get your hourly rate, then multiply by 2-3x to cover your overhead costs (rent, equipment, health insurance), as well as client uncertainty (won't pay (on time), time between projects, etc.).

Contracting for public tech companies / big entities, I shoot for $250/hr and am happy with anything above $175/hr. Contracting for smaller companies / startups, absolute minimum $75/hr, and only if I really like them.

Thanks for a detailed comment. I asked them for more money, here's the result:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140093

It's fine if you are in Eastern Europe or something like myself, I have ~$5400 monthly salary (don't log hours, so don't know hourly rate, also logging hours is a red flag for me). But if you are in the US that is very low for your experience.

Also look into lowering taxes, 50% is super high. I manage to pay low (flat) tax in my country because I registered self-proprietorship/registered entrepreneur company and have flat tax rate (it's an option if you meet some conditions). Maybe something similar exist in your country, do the research, contact professional accountant if needed.

Thanks! Just curious why logging hours is a red flag for you?

Well, I myself hate logging hours. But I think it's a personal issue of mine.

In short, it's maybe my ego thing. I somehow hate when people measure my minutes. I know what I do and I can manage any task they give me, quickly. But I hate when someone asks: "how many hours did you exactly work yesterday".

I finished all necessary tasks and a bit more :D like what's your problem with my hours?

But I know. I can be a complicated person in that sense...

50% is super high in the US, generally speaking, especially for income in that range. The person may be overpaying in taxes, or is including other stuff in 'taxes', or has an incredibly high local/state tax rate. A single person with no dependents earning $72k/year would, generally speaking, have a federal tax burden of around $8900 - 12%.

With 15 years experience? That's way low.

Which country are you in? Which country is your client in?

Your salary would be low in most markets for software developers.