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Is there a good list of average salary increases by occupation in the last year? My sense is low-wage jobs have had the highest percent gains, like $15 —> $25/hr = 67%, but the absolute increases for stuff like software have been huge in absolute terms (200k —> 300k is 50%)
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I would guess the above-the-api jobs have increased their share of the total wages pie chart. If 5 $15 people now make $25, but 1 $100/hr person (~200k/yr) makes $150, the total wage pie increase is 5*10+1*50, so the high wage guy makes 50% of the extra money
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So depending on distribution of workforce share vs income vs income gains, the actual spending power has likely increased most in the best compensated occupations?
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One of the hidden dangers of free agency is that when there are sharp macro shifts like an inflation spike and/or wage increases, you can't immediately respond. There's nobody you can go to and ask for a "raise" for inflation.
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You can of course, raise your hourly rate, but your demand curve isn't inelastic just because you want it to be. In 12y, I've gone from $150/hr for first client to $450/hr today, a 3x increase, but my actually income has only increase perhaps 30%. I've mainly bought myself time.
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In "normal" macro conditions, salary wages are more rigid than free agent, but in exceptional times, wage rigidity undergoes sudden collapses, and wages move by step functions. Free agent bill rates can't move that fast. They have to follow actual demand curve shifts.
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A wrinkle on that is there are psychological price points for free-agent billing where perceptions and expectations shift. I've recently started quoting $500/hr for new clients (haven't yet moved old clients to new rate), and it feels different in subtle ways
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Interesting fork... if I continue with hourly billing default, I'll probably need to start ramping more rapidly, but that puts me in different expectations regime that I don't like. Definitely find the typical $1000/hr band to be weird/theatrical/halo-effect bs.
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Astounding how many newbie free agents really don't get this math. They have identities and expectations attached to bill rates ("how dare you lowball me at $50/hr? I'm worth at least $500/hr!")... but don't really think about the demand curve
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How much of a 2000h/yr nominal inventory can you actually sell at a given bill rate? Deep identity-threat question for most people. Fortunately, that's a hangup I've basically never had. I see zero point in pretending I'm a $1000/guy if I can only sell 15 minutes at that rate 🤣
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Actually, I don't have a good read on my actual current rate, since my main gig for the last couple of years, I'm taking half my comp in stock... I may assess the value of this time at >$1000/hr in a few years if I'm lucky
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