How can I increase my hourly pay as a software developer?
Short term: ask for a raise or look for a new job that pays more. Longer term: "It's a tough thing to do.  You should look for a salaried position.  Your freelance skills will be much better received, if you've worked for a couple of companies doing programming full time.  Nothing beats working at it all day long for a few years. If you're set on being freelance, write some utility that will be popular, and submit it to Freshmeat.net.  Now that's asking a lot.  Those on the Web looking for programmers will most likely want you to work for 'sweat equity'.  That is, a share in the company for you labour.  In other words ""FREE"".  I've done my share of those, and if you're just getting into this, you should steer away from them.  You may hit the jackpot, but you won't sleep for the next few years ;-)" You are paid hourly? I would have expected most IT people to be on salary Depends what your boss is like, he might be easy going and just give a raise if you ask for it. Failing that, do some self improvements, learn something new, take a course, maybe take some PHP certifications or even java certifications? Then at least you can say you're trying to move up In regards to pay, have a look on monster or some US job sites, at jobs similar to what you do and with the similar requirements, that should give you an idea of what you should be on. If all else fails, find a new job, that is always a good way of  moving up Hope this helps "Start by going to Salary.com and figuring out what the range is for your location (could be quite wide).  Then also look at job postings in your area and see if any of them mention remuneration (gov't jobs tend to do this).  If possible go and ask other people in your field what they think the expected range of salary should be. Take all that data and create a range for your position.  Then try and place yourself in that range based on your experience and skill set.  Be honest. Compare that with your own pay.  If your figures indicate you should be making significantly more, schedule a meeting with your boss (or wait for a yearly review if it's relatively soon) and lay out your findings.  They can say: Be ready for curve balls like benefits, work environment and other ""intangibles"". If they say no and you still think your compensation is unfair, it's time to polish up your CV.  The easiest way to get a job is to already have one." Most full time developer jobs in the US are paid on a salary basis rather than hourly unless you are a contractor. Also, the pay varies widely by region in the US with the West and East coast typically paying the most, but also having the highest cost of living. A site I really like for getting salary data by region and keyword for technical jobs is indeed.com. Here is a link to a chart on that site comparing salary trends for PHP and Joomla.
I've recently started studying a bit of finance (I am a software developer) and have a question regarding the Bank of England (BoE) announcement.    The BoE agreed in maintaining its current interest rate (0.25% I think), although it announced it would be buying GILT (Government Bonds), wouldn't the purchase of bonds by a central bank make the interest rate move down?   Isn't the goal of a central bank purchasing bonds, to move the interest rate? Is there a difference between adding liquidity to the market (increasing money supply) and changing the interest rate? Can these two things be separated?  Thank you :) "I've been highly compensated for a while now, and I have never used a tax professional.  My past complications include the year that my company was bought by a VC firm and my stock options and stock held were bought out to the tune of 5x my salary.  And now I have two kids in college, with scholarships, and paying the remainder out of 529 accounts. Usually, I don't even use tax software.  My typical method is to use the online software -- like turbotax online -- and let it figure out where I am.  Then I use the ""Free File Fillable forms"" online to actually complete the process.  Search for ""Free File Fillable Forms"" -- it's not the same as using turbotax or TaxAct for free.   My suggestion to you:  download the PDF form of 1040EZ and 1040A from the IRS.  Print the EZ, and fill it out.  This will give you a better feel for what exactly is going on.  With your income, I don't think you can file the EZ, but it's a good way to get your feet wet. The way income taxes work here in the US: According to the IRS, the Personal Exemption this year is worth $4,050, and the Standard Deduction $6,300, assuming you're single.   Lets assume that your salary will be in fact 75,000, and you don't pay for any benefits, but you do make a 401k contribution of 15% of your salary.  Then your W-2 at the end of the year should tell you to put 63,750 in a particular box on your 1040 form.  (63,750 is 85% of 75,000).  Lets then assume 63,750 is your AGI after other additions and subtractions.  63,750 - 4,050 - 6,300 == 53,400. The federal Tax system is graduated, meaning there are different ranges (brackets) with different percentages.  The term tax people use for taxable income of 53,400 is ""marginal tax rate""...so the last dollar they tax at 25%.  Other dollars less.  According to the IRS, if you're single, then on 53,400, you pay ""$6,897.50 plus 25% of the amount over $50,400""  Or 6897.50 + 750, or 7647.50. Note this is only Federal Income Tax.  You will also be paying Social Security and Medicare payroll Tax.  And I'm guessing you'll also be paying colorado state income tax.  Each state has its own forms and methods for figuring out the taxes and stuff. By the way, when you start, you'll fill out a ""W-4"" form to ""help"" you figure out how much to withhold from every paycheck.  (I find the W-4 is not helpful at all).  Your company will withhold from your paycheck some mysterious amount, and the process of filling out your 1040A or 1040EZ or whatever will be, likely, to get the over-withheld amount back." "Split transactions are indispensable to anybody interested in accurately tracking their spending. If I go to the big-box pharmacy down the road to pick up a prescription and then also grab a loaf of bread and a jug of milk while there, then I'd want to enter the transaction into my software as: I desire entering precise data into the software so that I can rely on the reports it produces. Often, I don't need an exact amount and estimated category totals would have been fine, e.g. to inform budgeting, or compare to a prior period. However, in other cases, the expenses I'm tracking must be tracked accurately because I'd be using the total to claim an income tax deduction (or credit).  Consider how Internet access might be commingled on the same bill with the home's cable TV service.  One is a reasonable business expense and deduction for the work-at-home web developer, whereas the other is a personal non-deductible expense. Were split transaction capability not available, the somewhat unattractive alternatives are: Ignore the category difference and, say, categorize the entire transaction as the larger or more important category.  But, this deliberately introduces error in the tracked data, rendering it useless for cases where the category totals need to be accurate, or, Split the transaction manually. This doesn't introduce error into the tracked data, but suffers another problem: It makes a lot of work. First, one would need to manually enter two (or more) top-level transactions instead of the single one with sub-amounts.  Perhaps not that much more work than if a split were entered. Worse is when it comes time to reconcile:  Now there are two (or more) transactions in the register, but the credit card statement has only one.  Reconciling would require manually adding up those transactions from the register just to confirm the amount on the statement is correct.  Major pain! I'd place split transaction capability near the top of the list of ""must have"" features for any finance management software." "That's an interesting statement to make. A pretty even number of people complain about not being helped and being ""bombarded"" with ""pushy"" employees. Hourly employees won't be as aggressive about selling whatever the fuck they can, and commission employees are going to make sure they help you even if you don't ask.  Best buy also tries to promise ""impartial advice"" which I think can only be achieved through hourly employees.   My comment history might give away that I was (I still am but I used to too) a best buy employee, first in mobile, then Geek Squad. I can't speak for more than my store,  but 9/10 of the people I work with regularly go above and beyond to do the right thing, and make good recommendations, for the customer first. I went from the new guy to the top associate in mobile in less than a year, just by presenting my customers with all of their options and suggesting a solution based on the information they give me.    Best buys problem, in my opinion, are young managers and old employees.  Older employees in my experience, know less about the products, are less honest, and more aggressive salespeople. With management, best buy loves to push young managers who increase sales around to affect as many stores as possible, meaning a younger go-hard pushes to undo the customer service progress that a store may make.   I never looked best buy until I started working there. Call it Stockholm syndrome if you can't resist, but there's a reason they're still around. Mobile and Geek squad aren't going anywhere for sure, and there are other very profitable segments of the store as well. I don't think they're going anywhere soon.   Sorry for the rant" "And that is my point: without specific dollar amounts...this is USELESS information.    The problem with this crap information is that some crappy operation will find a reason to pay themselves more for being a ""good boss"" thinking that will make up for any raises.   I'd take a better boss over a 5-cent an hour raise (and yes, I worked at McDonalds when raises were 0-5-10 cents an hour...and yeah, I would have liked a better boss for 5 cents).    However, for an annual job that pays $500/hr I'll gladly work in horrid conditions with a horrible boss doing awful things." "With your knowledge/experience, you should easily be able to find work through one of the freelance developer sites out there.  It would let you work flexibly on your own schedule, and you can decide what types of work you're willing to do at rates you choose to work for. You could always come up with your own ideas for a commercial website of some kind that could help generate some degree of passive income that won't interfere with your full-time work.  That's only limited by your imagination and creativity. The third alternative is to find a ""real"" job (I chuckle at that one!) like most people do. I hope this helps. Good luck!" The article addresses market wages. Also, as others have pointed out, under the regular pay scheme jumping companies every couple of years so that you can get a salary that reflects your current skill set and responsibilities is the norm. Very true. I work in corporate finance and the hours are typically 9-6, but when we have our annual operating plan or some sort of deliverable we'll stay past 8.  But here, because analysts get overtime (time and a half) we rarely work past 10 (anything past 12 hours in double time!)  The work life balance is quite fantastic! However, the pay is not what it would be if you chose banking or consulting (it's comparable $60k but no bonuses).