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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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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gig as in anchor consulting gig, not job...
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