Hi Steve,

To add to what John said, I would advise you to NOT tell any prospective client or employer what your current rate is. If they knew the $17.50 figure, they will wonder why????? Not trying to be a smart-ass here but...

If you are working as an independent, you have correctly surmised that your benefits are on your own PLUS you get the pleasure of paying almost 16% to Uncle Sam BEFORE you even start on income tax... A rule of thumb is that you can probably not count on billing more than half of your time. The rest is spent in training, marketing and administrative stuff. Even if you work the normal 12-14 hrs a day most of us independents do, you are still limited.

So, say for example you want to make $75K before taxes etc. and you have only 1000 hrs available to bill. Then your rate has to be $75/hr. The rate you can charge depends a lot on your market so I can't help you there but John says Tampa is booming.... then $75 does not sound unrealistic.

Good luck,

Ken

>Here's the deal. I am currently working under a 1099 contract at $17.50 per hour (mostly off-site from my own office and I am told that I am grossly underpaid). Of course, I pay my own health insurance and FICA taxes too (Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!).
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>But the thing is, I love my job and my employer so much that the money doesn't matter to me. But the Mrs. has asked me to look for a new job or a new contract that offers health insurance benefits and W-2 status. I see her point, but...
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>So my plan is to find another full-time VFP position that offers benefits and W-2 status. Then, I will have two full-time jobs for awhile. I plan to keep my current contract going as long as I can and as long as it does not impact either job in terms of performance and productivity.
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>What I need is some guidance as to what hourly rate should I seek vs. benefits/no benefits and W-2/1099? Unless I go with a larger company, the benefits don't seem to be there. I am not sure I can handle two full-time positions, but my original flexible contract will allow me to work during off-hours and weekends. I would probably work 8-5 if I go and find a job locally here in the Tampa Bay area.
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>I've seen jobs on the Internet for VFP in the Tampa area that pay $15.00 - $20.00 per hour on average. So I don't believe my current rate is out of line for the area. I have talked to some local VFP programmers who say I should get $50.00/hour (which I would love, but I don't think that is realistic given my experience and knowledge of VFP). I have 2 years of VFP. But I do have 10 years of mainframe programming in COBOL, Fortran and Assembler for the record.
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>I don't look forward to leaving the comfort of my home office for the towers of downtown Tampa and the traffic, but you got to do what you got to do.
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>Thanks for your inputs. I might feel better after I sort this all out.