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Please help negotiate a "work from home" salary for CS graduate

C

Caveman

Platinum Member
My wife is a CS graduate (May 05), and was a co-op student at 2 CS-type companies with ~2 years experience, doing everything from web design to computer programming to database management.

She's got a chance to work from home for a small, local company doing some "easy" work with XML on a contract/consulting, part time basis (10-20 hrs/week). The opportunity seems "about right", and we don't want to be gold diggers, but... we're not desperate for the job either and want to be reasonably aggressive about proper compensation.

Going rate here for a CS graduate fresh out of school with NO experience is ~$50K/year ($24/hr) for a full-time job.

Obviously, since she'd be working as a contract employee with no benefits (and no overhead for the employer), we can ask for a much higher salary than the standard going rate. Based on what I understand about (job-shop) contract labor, asking for $40/hr seems "about right" since the job is "easy", part-time, and for a small company.

Agree? Please help... Thanks.

Cliffs:
- wife is CS grad with 2 years co-op experience (programming, etc)
- opportunity to work from home on contract basis 10-20 hrs/week
- work is "easy" XML shuffling
- employer is a small company
- thinking of negotiating to $30-40/hr... Good ballpark or not?


 
That sounds about right. It really depends on your area. You could probably ask for more since it is a contract position.
 
where in the hell are you from?

I'm a very experienced CS and I'll be amazed if I get that when I graduate in may....
 
Originally posted by: acemcmac
where in the hell are you from?

I'm a very experienced CS and I'll be amazed if I get that when I graduate in may....
Click to expand...

Live in Huntsville, AL... 50K/yr starting isn't all too strange with all the govt contractor jobs here...

Originally posted by: BigJ
$30-$40/hour seems quite a bit excessive for basic XML work.
Click to expand...

So, how much do you think? Remember, the company doesn't pay any O/H here... Which is generally 2-2.5 times what they have to "really" pay a "normal" employee...
 
Originally posted by: BigJ
$30-$40/hour seems quite a bit excessive for basic XML work.
Click to expand...

You would be surprised how much people will pay for "basic XML work." Especially small companies who don't have enough XML work to require a FTE. I have done contract work writing fairly simple XSLTs for over $100/hour, however I am in Calfornia.

OP, if your wife does good work don't feel guilty about charging more. Finding quality contractors is hard to do and most companies would gladly pay more for them.
 
Dang I'm in the wrong place and doing the wrong job. I should be writing XML in Alabama rather than developing web appications in New York!
 
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