Hourly Rate for Principal Software Engineer?

Question

I'm in the Midwest and I've found a Principal Software Engineer that is interested in hiring me as an hourly contractor.I've worked for this team before as a Lead Software Developer (I was an hourly contractor then as well) and I did indeed lead a team of other developers. They were thrilled with me, the pay was good so I worked my butt off for them.This was circa 2017. So the question is, how much would I charge today with more experience and the better job title?I don't really feel comfortable disclosing hourly rate, so if you could just use example numbers or as a percentage I'd appreciate it.The only thing that I know for certain is I'm not charging less!

cratermoon · Accepted Answer

You can take salary and divide by 2080 to get hourly. If your contract is a 1099 b2b, you can easily double that.

joezydeco · Answer

Inflation index from 2017 is 1.25. And this a promotion.I'd say take your 2017 hourly rate and double it. If they act all hurt on that number, then they should hire you FT with benefits.