In the US at least, as a contractor, you
have to make
a lot more in gross pay to come out equivalent to what you'd earn at a lower salary somewhere else. You have to cover:
* Health Insurance
* No paid time off: Want 4 weeks off a year? That's a 7.6% reduction in pay.
* You have to pay both the employee & employer side of payroll taxes
* You're not eligible for unemployment, so you need to save more money to cover that possibility
* No retirement fund so you don't get any matching funds and have to really be on top of what your long term needs are and take that off the top of your income.
As an example, I have a normal salary full-time job, but I also have a hobby business on the side. The money I make from that given the tax bracket I'm in, federal, state, payroll taxes, means my "take home" pay from is taxed around 43%. And that's without needing to take anything extra out of it for paid time off, health insurance, or retirement, all of which are well covered by my salaried position.
