I got a W2 offer via contracting agency to work as a contractor for a Fortune 100 company. When the hourly amount was first presented, is was before my interview and hastily thrown at me. I hadn’t done all the math myself so I told them, “I’m not sure if this matches my current compensation, there are a few things I need to calculate, but something near this may be a match.” I’m used to being a salaried employee so I was frank about my hesitancy in the numbers.
After the interview with the tech team at the client company being reported as having gone “remarkably well”, I had an offer within an hour from the contracting agency. I shot back a counter offer that is $10/hr more than originally mentioned. While this is a steep counteroffer, it is exactly matching my current salary compensation (taking into account what I’ll pay out of my own pocket for insurances, no bonus, a better employer match on 401k, no PTO, etc.)
There response was courteous but they said this was largely different than originally discussed and they’d need to go back to the client to ask if this was an acceptable amount, but they’re willing to.
Is this true? Wouldn’t they be billing me to the client at some general Software Engineer II range and if I want a raise, the agency can negotiate that with me themselves?