That is about 1 month cost of an average Engineer at a big company. So as longs as the freelancer provide as much as value as your average employee in 1 monh the company is doing a good decision. It is even better because the expertise of the freelancer tends to be high.
$500 per hour, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week gives $20k a week, $80k a month or (let's be charitable and say you earn a $40k bonus) $1 million a year. I don't know what the split between benefits and pure salary is in America, but let's put it at 2/3. Does the average engineer at a big corp really pull in $666.000 a year..?
I think you're misunderstanding the parent. Their comparison is between:
(1) a 50 hour contract at $500/hr = $25K
(2) 1 month of paying a full-time engineer = $25K (i.e. $300K/yr including payroll taxes and benefits)
If a freelancer comes in with specialized knowledge for solving a particular problem, it can be quite easy for them to add more value in 50 hours than an average engineer would in a month, and therefore it's worth it.
Exactly, I suspect that depending on the problem and the expert the value multiplier could be in the double digits.Something freelancers should think about when proposing and charging their work.
For what it's worth the average engineer doesn't get anywhere near 300k/yr. SV rates in some sectors have really distorted peoples view of what is actually being paid across the industry.
The average salary of an engineer at one of five companies in a single geographic area is _very_ different to "an average engineer", even just in the State let alone in the US or further afield.
