[LRUG] [JOBS] Ruby market rates.

Tue Jun 24 12:47:40 PDT 2014

Found that really interesting. I wonder what kind of rates part-time
remote or full-time remote staff can expect?

Would you also expect smaller and "more ethical" companies to offer less
than the £55K mark (which various stats claim is the average Senior Ruby
developer rates)?

Best, James

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 05:03:04pm +0000, Louis Goff-Beardsley wrote:
>    [I wrote this for a client, might be of relevance here.]
> 
> 
>    Hi x,
> 
> 
>    Hope this makes sense and doesn’t come out as some stream of
>    consciousness waffle.
> 
> 
>    Basically what you’ll find is that if you did a survey of all the Ruby
>    teams in London which have perm Senior developers you’ll find they will
>    be on anywhere between £55 & £80k. The average will probably be £65k.
>    So everyone then makes the assumption that they should be paying £65k
>    for an onsite perm developer. The problem is that they don’t come onto
>    the market (and most of the time when they do it’s to switch to going
>    contracting) so if you have an open vacancy for a Senior Ruby developer
>    @ £65k it will likely remain open for many months. What teams then do
>    from there is:
> 
>    ·         Drop their expectations and hire a Mid-level developer into a
>    senior position at senior money. The mid-level takes the role as its
>    more than the £45-55k that they are getting offered from other
>    companies.
> 
>    ·         Hire Mid-level developers @ Mid-level money. While it’s still
>    a tough market, mid-level perm isn’t as tough as senior perm.
> 
>    ·         Hire onsite contractors @ £400-600 /day as a stop-gap until
>    the perfect developer for them comes onto the market; will take a
>    while.
> 
>    ·         Accept remote/semi remote developers as they are more
>    plentiful, affordable and loyal (they don’t move jobs anywhere near as
>    often as onsite do as there aren’t as many opportunities constantly
>    being presented to them. Generally if a company offers them what they
>    want to fit in with their life style of why they want remote in the
>    first place they are content)
> 
>    ·         Offer above market rates: (i.e. £80k for a senior developer,
>    somewhere towards what they could make as contractors.). Interestingly
>    enough companies most of the time refuse to take this option as they
>    don’t want to feel like they are over paying, however they then go on
>    to take onsite contractors and it ends up costing them even more.
> 
>    ·         Wait and let it impact development, stressing out the
>    developers they have, in turn making them want to leave.
> 
> 
>    My opinion of why the market is like this is: when development is
>    business critical companies will pay whatever the market rate is for
>    contract developers to do the work until the point where they
>    physically can’t afford it. Whereas there is a collective consensus on
>    what Permanent salaries should be based on what they have been
>    historically, what other technologies are at, what a lot of permanent
>    developers who have not had a salary rise are at. The problem lies in
>    the collective consensus of what a permanent salary should be is so out
>    of whack with what the market rate for contract rates is (which is
>    closer to developers true value) that it’s got to the point where by
>    being perm developers are essentially walking away from £20k (perhaps
>    more if you consider that contractors can pay close to 20% tax).
> 
> 
>    If you look at SF, you’ll see that the contract rates and perm salaries
>    are much closer and thus there isn’t such a draw towards contract work.
> 
> 
>    I personally think the new developers coming onto the market will
>    cancel out the mass adoption of Ruby in start-ups and established
>    companies, and that on the whole, permeant salaries will go up as the
>    consensus of what permanent developers salaries should be becomes more
>    in line with their what true value is. This will happen to the point
>    where contract & permanent developers will separate into distinct
>    groups based on individuals personalities better suiting contract or
>    permanent work. Right now I think there are a lot of developers who
>    would be happier in a permanent job more than in a contract role but
>    economically it doesn’t make sense for them to be perm.
> 
> 
>    That being said, the above only takes into account the economics of
>    salaries. Relationships, buzz/hype surrounding the company, other perks
>    etc play some role in attracting developers to perm.
> 
> 
>    Best, Louis.
> 
>    -
>    Louis Goff-Beardsley
> 
>    Ultra-specialised Independent Ruby Recruìtment
>    [1]https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisbeardsley
> 
>    "I just can’t stop thinking about Ruby on Rails"
> 
>    Mobile: 07449 324 851 BBS: 0118 327 1821
> 
>    Skype/Googletalk: LouisGB1/[2]LouisRoR at gmail.com
> 
>    [3]@LouisRoR
> 
>    irc.freenode.org - LouisRoR - #Ruby #LRUG #NWRUG #Pokemonchat
> 
> References
> 
>    1. https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisbeardsley
>    2. mailto:LouisRoR at gmail.com
>    3. https://twitter.com/LouisRoR

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