I don't mind answering that question, but I'm not sure it has a place in the article (maybe I'll modify it later if I change my mind). My expectation is that in The Netherlands you could at most aim at 80k / year as a FTE (depending on lots of factors). Right now my workload is equivalent to 4 days / week and I'm earning about double what I'd get as an employee. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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This matches my experience as a Dutch contractor. FTE salary for devs caps out around 70-80k, often as a company policy. It's even stricter for large companies or governmental institutions that have formally published salary bands. Often, to get into the higher bands you need to have some sort of management responsibility like leading a department. Highly priced specialist labor like software developers fits poorly into that structure.
The commonly accepted way around this is for those institutions to hire contractors, which is a business-to-business transaction for which no such price limits or management requirements exist.
Total agreement with this.
I am Dutch, and indeed without working for meta-tier/booking.com-tier American firms you'll struggle to go above 80-100k for full time employment. Friends who went down the same path as wofo rake in 120-180k easily with a lot more free time (3-4 days/wk instead of 5) and fantastic flexibility.
This is exactly the info I was looking for, thanks for sharing!
I've had multiple interviews and a few offers with companies, both big and small, offering significantly more than 80K/yr - unless you're referring to net salary, after taxes.
My understanding was always that with freelancing you end up paying more taxes and insurance, especially if you want to cover your own pension (which has been included in all my employments except one).
Still, if you end up with comparable or higher earnings with less hours and more flexibility, still a win. I just don't think the difference is as big as you make it out to be.
Could you tell more about the companies, the roles and the salary ranges? Those are very interesting data points.
I usually interview for SRE positions, and I'd say the salary range for a senior is 90k-130k in Amsterdam. It may be possible to get even more in fintech or super big corporations, but I stay away from those.