@malte very much lowballing it, and not because developers are greedy, but because health, unemployment insurance and retirement funds need to be paid, and because these 20000 do not include the cost of infrastructure for hiring, paying and managing the developers.

@axel @Gina @landesregierung @digitalhubsh @bert_hubert

@bert_hubert @funkylab @axel but for freelancers those numbers would be the same, no?

either way, after having stated that the it-industry is a bit full of it, i feel i also need to state that we need to get all these wage-georges (aka billionaires) to cough up all these wages they swallowed up in their sleep, so social workers, teachers, plumbers, farmers, and healthcare workers can get a raise.

@funkylab @malte @bert_hubert
I have been a freelancer for 15 years and I’m quite content with a €100 (excl. VAT) rate. Yes I pay insurances and my pension from that as well.

I don’t know many civil servants who earn a salary of €130000+, but then I don’t know many civil servants who work tax-free for the EU.

@axel @malte @bert_hubert yep, things do look nice financially if you're employed by say the Joint Research Center of the EU Commission, for example.

An hourly salary of > 30€ isn't rare though, so I really don't think you're overbilling.

@axel @malte @bert_hubert why I say that: TV-L (union rate of public servants of the federal states), group E13 (>= Master in their job), level 6 (at least 5 jobs on the job or a comparably responsible position), 40 h/week full-time:
https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/allg?id=tv-l-2027&g=E_15%DC&s=6&zv=VBL&z=100&zulage=&stj=2026&stkl=1&lst4f=&r=0&zkf=0&pvk=0&kk=17%2C05%25

111,218.21 €/year pre-taxes for 2026 and 61,515.55 € post taxes for an unmarried person with no dependents.

TV-L (neu 2025) grants 30 days of paid vacation, so that's 224 working days in 2026, making the salary 62.06€ pre-, 34.32€ post-tax.

@funkylab @malte @bert_hubert

So assuming a EU, TV-L group 13, level 6 is a well paid public servant, earning €34 post tax, how is €100 ‘lowballing it’?

I guess governments are too used to paying overpriced IT corporations, adding multiple layers of management cruft, instead of directly finding qualified IT personnel. Either as a job or freelancing.

Just my €0,02 opinion of course.