I had no idea the IT consultant salaries were higher in Stockholm compared to London. What kind of rates would an IT consultant be expected to pull in Sweden?

Assignments that are accessible by "anyone" at the consultant brokers are often listed around 750-950 SEK/hour, which means ~470 to ~600 GBP/day if you work 8 hours per day -- clients usually don't mind you working more though. Tax isn't that different last time I checked, but CoL is of course much higher in London.

you are forgetting however that the 750-950 SEK/h includes self-employment taxes (arbetsgivaravgifter) of ~30% + 30% income tax. That´s before all other taxes and fees.

This was essentially the whole point of my original post about consultants. But people dont get this. After all taxes are paid, you get something like 375-475sek/h if even that as this is the above average level of salary.

Compared to when I lived and worked in London, this is a joke. That´s before factoring in cost of living relative to income. You live a much better life in London than you do in Sthlm for instance so I am not sure where you got that last part from. Especially if you consider how massively fucked the Krona is right now

I'm quite aware of the taxes involved -- as I said, I've been working as a consultant for some time now. What you might be forgetting is that, with a company, you can plan your taxes better. Take out a minimal salary and put everything in an ISK and you don't have to pay any capital gains tax, for example.

You're also going to pay taxes being self-employed in the UK, and whether you prefer London over Stockholm is subjective; what you need to consider is the cost of real estate mainly vs statistical incomes, rather than anecdotes.

Regarding how "massively fucked" the Krona is, check this chart: https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=SEK&view=5Y

Contracting in London is as good as dead come April

Haven't been following this too closely, but can I ask why? Is this because of some new tax rules implemented by HMRC?

Yes. It's a short term money grab that will have profound effect on financial services industry, pharma, construction, etc. After killing contracting in the public sector the time has come to abolish the one-man consultancy in the private sector. It's still there, but no client (esp. big companies) wants to put the risk of audit on themselves so they largely have a blanket policy of 'no contractors' in place come April.

They're pretty much the same.

I have toyed with the idea of working in the US, and I'd have to make about two times the salary in the US to have the same quality of living as in Sweden. Three to four times the salary to have access to the same kind of medical care. Maybe.

Perfectly doable of course, for someone into tech. But just to put things into perspective.

Most employers (tech) pay 90%+ of healthcare costs. Worst case scenario you might be responsible for $6k per person per year if you heavily used the healthcare system.

Why would you need to earn 3x as much?

Ignoring the cost of living, emulating zero copay and having the same level of care would cost you a few thousand a year. Not 2-3x your salary.

A first year student of some community college in the US is twice as good as the average developer here.

You think I am talking shit? well... I studied in the US and worked as a program director for a technical University based in Stockholm whose sole job was to output developers into the market in line with what all the hundreds of CTOs that I interviewed required.

Trust me when I say this, that article you linked to is pure PR bullshit. You can find the same article written about Paris, London, Berlin, etc. It´s all PR bullshit that people spin in order to attract foreign capital.

> Also, tech salaries are quite high -- as a consultant, you make more than in London at least.

at some point you ought to realize that what you´re saying is bullshit, and this sentence should have tipped you off to the fact that you´re talking out of your ass.

I don't understand your anger, but it's interesting that you've got such a completely different experience of the situation. FWIW, I've also studied in the US, and I've hired developers in Stockholm. There are of course both good and bad developers, but if you pay more, you tend to get better ones.

The article might or might not be bullshit, but there's a lot of highly valued tech companies per capita in Sweden, and I know for sure the consultant prices aren't bullshit as I've worked for quite a long time as just that. I'm usually not the kind of person that "talks out of my ass".

> A first year student of some community college in the US is twice as good as the average developer here.

I work closely with developers from both the US and Sweden, and this hasn't been my experience at all. If anything it's been the reverse.

What I can say though is that developers from Asian countries leave a lot to be desired. Which is funny as you've outsourced jobs to Vietnam.

At some point you ought to realize that what you're saying is bullshit too.

> a technical University based in Stockholm

The only technical university in Stockholm is KTH, I believe - is that what you're talking about?

> whose sole job was to output developers into the market in line with what all the hundreds of CTOs that I interviewed required

That's not how a university's role is usually seen.

I think the main point was that /u/wesammikhail seemed to claim a position that either didn't exist or was illconceived.