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Discussion on: Free like a freelancer or secure like an employee? There's a third option: The contractor

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Johannes Kettmann • Edited

Yeah, true. I also read stories on Reddit of 20-year-olds finding themselves in bad contracting jobs for minimum wage. I guess there's a dark side to contracting. If a company can hire a (mostly inexperienced) dev as a contractor for a low hourly rate they save a lot of money on benefits like health insurance and so on. That's very common in the construction industry afaik. In Germany, there are a lot of people from other countries working on construction sites as contractors without having any benefits or security. I described the sunny side: If you're an expert you make a good living.

Btw I didn't want to say that freelance or consulting are paid worse. I guess they can even earn more since they take higher risks. But that depends a lot on your negotiation skills and your skills