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Billing Rate - Senior Java Developer

 
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US-EAST COAST

Can anyone tell me on an average good billing rate for a senior java developer/lead position?
Also, I am willing to ask my employer to remove benefits like health insurance, 401k, education reimbursement from my package. All I want him to do is run my payroll. That is the demerit being on H1B :-(

 
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Ram Nagaraj wrote:Also, I am willing to ask my employer to remove benefits like health insurance, 401k, education reimbursement from my package. All I want him to do is run my payroll. That is the demerit being on H1B :-(



??

Cheers!

Luke
 
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Don’t know, but welcome to the Ranch
It is probably not safe to work in the States without health insurance.
 
Ram Nagaraj
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Well, I am located in the east coast and currently working on W2 - annual salary.

I would like to move towards hourly billing and manage benefits (say health insurance) myself instead of asking my employer to do so.
 
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I would think that your rate would depend on how much you would need to cover those costs yourself. have you done any research into that?
 
Ram Nagaraj
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Yes, off late I have been looking into benefits provided by my company/other companies in general.

let us assume the benefits are
1. 401k
2. Health insurance (medical, dental, vision)
3. Education reimbursement
4. Paid Time off

I can treat them as optional and select them accordingly.
1. 401K - No
2. Health Insurance (Get a quote from any insurance provider and customize it to your needs)
3. Education reimbursement (one can choose No)
4. PTO - No

So basically if you choose No to all these options, your employer should run your payroll by deducting state/federal/city taxes.

Keeping this in mind on an average what is the hourly billing rate for a Senior Java Developer?
 
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US employees would normally have to pay these things, right? So you're basically aiming to undercut them because you don't want to pay for the things that anybody permanently based in the USA would need to pay for (health, pension etc)? Only asking.
 
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You are forgetting Employer taxes ( 15.3% ) which the employer (or whoever runs the payroll) has to pay to keep you as an employee. If you set up a C corp, you would have to pay that. If you don't you would have to pay "Self Employment" tax of the same amount. Medical , 401K are not the things that you should worry about the most because they depend on the level of service you want to have. But Employer/Self Employment tax is what you need to consider first.
 
Ram Nagaraj
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What I would like to do is handle a part of employee benefits myself say paid time off, medical insurance, 401k etc instead of allowing my employer to handle that so that I can demand a better hourly rate.

This has nothing to do with me being on a work visa. I think most consultants do this. In case the benefits like medical insurance provided by my firm is far better than one I customize/purchase with a insurance I would go ahead and keep it.

As far as taxes are concerned I want employer to take care of that (say fed/state/city social, medicare etc...)

So keeping this in mind what is the billing rate one can expect for a senior developer position?
 
Luke Kolin
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Ram Nagaraj wrote:What I would like to do is handle a part of employee benefits myself say paid time off, medical insurance, 401k etc instead of allowing my employer to handle that so that I can demand a better hourly rate.



You will find that for some of these (medical and 401K) there's no point to forgo this. You can simply not contribute to your 401K. For medical, while most places will give you a small amount of additional salary in lieu of benefits, you will discover that this is far less than how much the employer was contributing, and you are forced to use after-tax dollars to buy your own policy rather than pre-tax dollars when obtained via your employer.

As far as taxes are concerned I want employer to take care of that (say fed/state/city social, medicare etc...)



You have no choice, being on a W-2 basis. They will do this no matter what.

So keeping this in mind what is the billing rate one can expect for a senior developer position?



Where on the East Coast? NY or Boston are more expensive than Charlotte or Orlando.

Cheers!

Luke
 
Ram Nagaraj
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USA-Ohio-Columbus/Dublin (East Coast)
 
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