Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Second, $25 an hour is a good wage if (a) you are employed by someone else who provides benefits and this is just pin money for you and (b) it is part of a steady business flow. Most professional editors earn more because they have all the self-employment taxes to absorb (e.g., 13.6% of income for social security taxes alone compared to 6.8% that those employed by someone else pay); the cost of maintaining professional resources and tools that someone else would be providing and paying for if they were not self-employed; the costs of insurance, including health insurance that they not only have to foot 100% of the cost of but also have to pay a significantly higher premium for lesser coverage because they are not part of an employer-sponsored plan; etc.
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It's not quite that bleak, though--half of the SS tax is tax deductible, all the health insurance is deductible, home office expenses are deductible. Plus there's the savings on commuting, both money and time.