What's a reasonable programmer salary?
 

Considering adding a programmer FT. What is the going salary for an experienced off site programmer these days.

I have always paid per project in the past.

around here - $80K - $125K + benefits
The ones at < $100K tend to not have too much experience.

off site? get yourself a good russian group and continue paying per project

on site? for the web... prob around 50k-ish in vegas

It depends entirely on what you need. Languages, experience, education, etc.

You can probably get an inexperienced php/sql scripter without any formal education for $30k a year. Someone with a MSc in software engineering, 10 years of experience and knowledge of a dozen languages will cost you $100k+.

You can get a junior coder for 25-30k a year, I personally don't think I would take any job for less then 70-80k if it were full time.

Don't worry too much about degrees and stuff in a web developer, many people including myself are self taught.

Sorry, but, ehm...

Do worry about degrees. Self-taught programmers can be great, but most lack knowledge about functioning as part of a team, following good coding practices, etc.

Even with a great self-taught programmer, chances are you're gonna have trouble making him function inside an organization. Also, when you switch to another programmer, and need new code integrated with your old code, it's very likely that the old code will need extensive rewrites.

There's alot things that factor in but, You usually get what you pay for when it comes to programmers.

dear god wizzo hit the nail on the head

and just assume their all going to be insane.....just trust me on that

every one i ever met in my entire life...(over 100 of em) all fucking nuts

- signed

pr0's nuts

I don't think this is entirely true... I didn't have a degree and fit right in at 18 at a large consulting firm in SF.

After about 2 years I had people with degrees I was the lead for... it all depends on how ambitious the person you hire is.

I always wanted to learn & it was a huge passion for me... especially since I started @ 48k right out of high school in 1999!

There are exceptions, of course.

Still, education does serve a real and important purpose. Self-taught programmers very often keep making mistakes if those mistakes don't result in actual errors. They lack guidance, and while some are able to get past that, many simply get stuck in bad coding practices without ever knowing that they are, in fact, following bad coding practices.

I have PHP programmers in India that are spot on with deadlines at 15.00. I have one programmer here in SoCal I pay him 50.00 per hour.

I paid a Phillipino 800.00 for 2 months and he jacked up my ecommerce site with errors.

Anyone reasonably competent will want high 5 figures, someone "good" 6 figures+...

depends on location too

With outsourcing, it's hit and miss. Sometimes I think that many programmers in poorer countries simply choose their education based on financial prospects, often without considering if they like the subject and have a talent for it.

So, you end up with some great programmers, as well as quite a few who couldn't code their way out of a wet paper bag. Unfortunately, many outsourcing companies pay little attention to individual skills.

I definitely agree about guidance... college does teach you how to be an employee :)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The problem I have is I dont have enough work for a FT programmer. Probably between 20-25 hours. However I have been considering biting the bullet and hiring one anyway as I have had terrible luck with contracted work. Projects always late with many bugs, completely disappearing etc. It's getting to the point that I ask them how many Grandparents they have so I can limit the missed deadlines due to mourning and funerals.

I have a few additional projects that I could start if I had a guy (or gal) FT.

Freelancers definitely tend to be unreliable. Many are inexperienced, lie about past projects, etc. If you're gonna use freelancers, try and get one or a few regulars - preferably with very good references that you've checked yourself.

If you have 25 hours of programming work a week, though, getting a full time employee probably is best. The remaining 15 hours can easily be filled with long-term projects and unneeded but helpful features for existing stuff.

If I were you, though, I'd go for an in-house one, so you can be sure he actually spends his hours working for you instead of playing WoW.