[desarun]

I'd disagree with that.

Leads I know at several major London companies are in the 70-90k range.

Pre-brexit exchange rates put that salary not too far off SF, plus lower living costs than the bay ($3000 for a one bed? No thanks).

Hell, I don't know many contractors on less than 100k (once you do the math).

[lostboys67]

Don't think housing is cheaper in London than SV - its just public transport is better allowing for a longer distance commute

Interesting but a contractor on 100k is only equivalent to circa 45k as a FTE using the 3x rule I would expect a contractor rate for a FTE of 80k to be in the 200k range.

Also do they offer the same value in share options /rsu's etc. that SV companies do

[goobynight]

That's not how the 3x rule works. You don't use the 3x rule to compare yearly compensation.

[desarun]

Note that all of this is UK based.

Startups in London will offer shares for senior positions in much the same way as San Fran, normally with a vestment period, but it's not as common.

I'm not 100% on what the 3x rule is.

What I do know is that most of my contractor friends are on around £500 per day, which assuming a 260-workday year is 130k. There's a couple of oracle DBA's on around 800pd, which is 208k.

But then you have to administer a database & there's only so much I'd be prepared to do for money.

As a contractor, normal tax rules don't apply (and are normally much more beneficial). So a contractor earning 90k & a FTE earning 90k still results in the contractor coming out miles ahead in terms of raw income.

Obviously there's offsets to this. No sick pay, no paid leave, no free pension contributions etc.