[timruffles]

Definitely higher than half that. SWEs at FB, Google etc will get >100k. Even aside from that I regularly see higher than half that - e.g random example from a quick Google at 85k https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Travelex-Backend-Engineer... - 90th percentile of Java roles are over 100k - https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/java.do.

Secondly a pretty average contractor day rate is 500pd, which is over 100k, and there are a lot of contractors. I think it makes eng salaries in the UK seem lower than they are. Many of my friends went contract and would never go back. The senior market is therefore hard to hire for, outside trendy/exciting companies, unless you pay for contractors.

That said, we should all be asking for raises <3! By all I mean everyone apart from the C suites of public companies

[string]

I've been contracting for just over a year in London as a JS dev. £500 is a good day rate, I've seen as low as £250 advertised. It also varies a little, for example front-end gigs using React will generally pay better than Vue (a shame for me in particular as I prefer Vue).

With the IR35 changes I've been looking at switching back to full-time, but the salary ranges are just so low in comparison, it's quite disheartening really. Most comparable full-time positions offer about a third of what I make contracting.

I also expected contractors to be more highly skilled, but in my experience it's almost the opposite. I recently worked with a devops contractor earning probably around £100k who had set the organisation wide SSO administrator password to "Password1".

If I didn't have so many commitments in the UK I would seriously consider trying to move to the US. The market here seems completely bizarre.

[noelwelsh]

Seconding this comment. Equal Experts, which is a large consultancy / contracting firm pays around £500 per day or a bit higher if my info is correct. I know people working in finance whose rates range up to around £1000 per day. Earning around £200K per year as a contractor is not unusual. I know many people who do this.

[rezeroed]

That itjobswatch java London: London median annual salary £75,000

I'm not sure big tech and finance are representative of London.

[timruffles]

Sure, but since that’s a median not a cap, doesn’t that point to ‘a more realistic cap is not even half that’ (75k) being a bit pessimistic?

There are a lot of people in finance in London, also a lot of big tech (seen the current, and new, Google buildings at KGX?), quite aside from a lot of contractors :)