Dr. Michael Bisconti, DBA Database Administrator, Developer, & Architect Rate Percentile Depends On Company Size & Project Complexity (See Tables 2 Thru 4) If we accept a nonstandard rate, you must report what you are charging your client. We are continually updating this web page with the most current data from the most reliable sources. Our rates are market rates and among the most competitive in the business. Also, we negotiate based on a variety of market factors, including local market appraisals; for example, Seattle pays less than San Francisco (see Table 2 below). This web page does not report all of the market factors we take into consideration. First, we need to teach you what we call the “CO2 Principle” (“CO2” is pronounced like the formula for carbon dioxide and is derived from the term “CR2 Principle,” which is an abbreviation for “Company Rate Ratio Principle.” The CO2 Principle says: The larger the business the higher the rate they can afford to pay. Here is data to back up this principle. This is from http://marketing.dice.com/pdf/Dice_2008-09_TechSalarySurvey.pdf: Table 1 | Average Salary By Company Size | | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | Less than 50 Employees | $62,853 | $68,234 | 50 - 99 Employees | $67,176 | $70,192 | 100 - 499 Employees | $69,479 | $74,735 | 500 - 999 Employees | $73,462 | $75,187 | 1,000 - 4,999 Employees | $77,486 | $79,103 | 5,000 or More Employees | $83,053 | $86,777 |
Here is a simple graph of the above data: 
The following information for DBAs will be found at http://www.realrates.com/allsearch.htm using the Job Description “DBA” and leaving all other fields unchanged: Title: DBA 58 matching rate reports were found in our database of data contributed between 1/2/2002 and 10/7/2009. Statistical Contract Hourly Rate Analysis56 US Dollar Rates found. Highest Rate: $135.00 Lowest Rate: $43.00 Median Rate: $68.75 Average Rate: $75.63 Standard Deviation: $25.15 Percentage Brokered: 67.24% 45 rate reports included information about the rate received on the previous contract.
The median current rate was the same as the previous rate.
The current rate was an average of 1.18% more than the previous rate. 21 rate reports included information about the rate paid by the client. Median Broker Markup: 25.00% Average Broker Markup: 32.71%
Markup is the broker's cut defined as a percentage of the amount paid to the consultant. Median Broker Cut: 20.00% Average Broker Cut: 21.19%
Broker Cut is the broker's cut defined as a percentage of the amount paid by the client. 57 reports included the length of the contract.
Longest Contract: 36.00 months Shortest Contract: 0.00 months Median Contract Length: 6 months Average Contract Length: 7 months Standard Deviation: 6.59 months |
The rates in the following table are based on information pertaining to: ● http://www.payscale.com ● http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_bulletin_settingrates.pdf ● The statistical analysis above: “Statistical Contract Hourly Rate Analysis” ● http://www.realrates.com/cgi-bin/allstats.cgi ● http://marketing.dice.com/pdf/Dice_2008-09_TechSalarySurvey.pdf ● The CO2 Principle (see above) ● Table 3 Rates Divided by 1.3 Table 2 | December 2009 | Expert-Level DBA, Developer, & Architect Fair W2 IB Contract Hourly Rates IB = Insurance Benefits (1099 Rate = 1.3 X W2 IB Rate [see 1099 rate table below]) | | City or Average | 25% =< Simple Project Small Company | 50% =< Clear-cut Project Midsize Company | 75% =< Complex Project Large Company | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities | Atlanta | 78.14 | 100.08 | 128.25 | Birmingham | 68.24 | 90.66 | 119.48 | Charlotte | 75.82 | 98.47 | 128.02 | Chicago | 73.78 | 97.50 | 126.80 | Dallas | 80.18 | 101.03 | 127.72 | Forth Worth | 78.76 | 101.65 | 131.07 | Houston | 77.07 | 99.74 | 129.08 | Jacksonville | 72.66 | 95.07 | 124.12 | Phoenix | 79.88 | 102.50 | 131.74 | Raleigh | 75.62 | 98.35 | 128.18 | San Francisco | 90.02 | 116.30 | 149.12 | Seattle | 83.00 | 106.42 | 135.89 | | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities Average | 77.77 | 100.65 | 129.96 | | National Average | 82.24 | 98.86 | 118.32 |
The rates in the following table are based on information pertaining to: ● Old Table 2 Rates of 1/1000th Payscale.com Salaries with 15.3% Employer Tax ● 7.65% Employer Tax Deduction ● http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/745994.html ● The statistical analysis above: “Statistical Contract Hourly Rate Analysis” ● Divide-By-One-Thousand Rule ● Labor Load† of 40% ● Performance Bonus of 10% ● Average “DBA Adjustment” of 72% Reduced to 50% Due to Sample Size & Age Table 3 | December 2009 | Expert-Level DBA, Developer, & Architect Fair All-Inclusive 1099 Contract Hourly Rates (W2 IB Rate = 1099 Rate ∕ 1.3 [see W2 IB rate table above]) | | City or Average | 25% =< Simple Project Small Company | 50% =< Clear-cut Project Midsize Company | 75% =< Complex Project Large Company | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities | Atlanta | 101.58 | 130.10 | 166.73 | Birmingham | 88.71 | 117.86 | 155.33 | Charlotte | 98.57 | 128.01 | 166.43 | Chicago | 95.91 | 126.75 | 164.84 | Dallas | 104.24 | 131.34 | 166.04 | Forth Worth | 102.39 | 132.14 | 170.39 | Houston | 100.19 | 129.66 | 167.81 | Jacksonville | 94.46 | 123.59 | 161.36 | Phoenix | 103.85 | 133.25 | 171.26 | Raleigh | 98.30 | 127.85 | 166.64 | San Francisco | 117.03 | 151.19 | 193.86 | Seattle | 107.90 | 138.35 | 176.66 | | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities Average | 101.10 | 130.85 | 168.95 | | National Average | 106.91 | 128.52 | 153.81 |
The rates in the following table are based on information pertaining to: ● Table 2 ● Life, Health, & Disability Insurance Benefits of 8.5% of Total Compensation ● http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm Table 4 | December 2009 | Expert-Level DBA, Developer, & Architect Fair W2 NIB Contract Hourly Rates NIB = No Insurance Benefits | | City or Average | 25% =< Simple Project Small Company | 50% =< Clear-cut Project Midsize Company | 75% =< Complex Project Large Company | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities | Atlanta | 85.40 | 109.38 | 140.16 | Birmingham | 74.58 | 99.08 | 130.58 | Charlotte | 82.86 | 107.62 | 139.91 | Chicago | 80.63 | 106.56 | 138.58 | Dallas | 87.63 | 110.42 | 139.58 | Forth Worth | 86.08 | 111.09 | 143.25 | Houston | 84.23 | 109.01 | 141.07 | Jacksonville | 79.41 | 103.90 | 135.65 | Phoenix | 87.30 | 112.02 | 143.98 | Raleigh | 82.64 | 107.49 | 140.09 | San Francisco | 98.38 | 127.10 | 162.97 | Seattle | 90.71 | 116.31 | 148.51 | | Top 12 Most Jobs Cities Average | 84.99 | 110.00 | 142.03 | | National Average | 89.88 | 108.04 | 129.31 |
Table 5 | Primary Management Systems | Relational Database Management System | Rate ELR = Expert-Level Rate Tables 2 thru 4 | | DB2 | .9 X ELR | | Informix | .85 X ELR | | MySQL | .8 X ELR | | ORACLE | 1.175 X ELR | | SQL Server | ELR | | Sybase | .875 X ELR | | |
Since our specialty is “databases” – RDBMSs, Relational Database Management Systems – we make it a point to familiarize ourself with all current database technologies. We are prepared to work with any of the systems listed in the following two tables. Table 6 | In-House Management Systems | | 4th Dimension | | Alpha Five | Apache Derby | Asql | BlackRay | CA-Datacom | CSQL | Daffodil database | DataEase | Dataphor | DB-Fast | Derby aka Java DB | EnterpriseDB | EffiProz (Pure C# database under development) | eXtremeDB | fastDB | FileMaker Pro | Firebird | Gladius DB | Greenplum | H2 | Helix database | HSQLDB | IBM DB2 | WCE SQL Plus | IBM DB2 Express-C | Informix | Ingres | InterBase | InterSystems Caché | Kognitio | Linter | MaxDB | Mckoi SQL Database | Microsoft Access | Microsoft Jet Database Engine (part of Microsoft Access) | Microsoft SQL Server | Microsoft SQL Server Express | Microsoft Visual FoxPro | Mimer SQL | MonetDB | mSQL | MySQL | Netezza | NonStop SQL | Openbase | OpenLink Virtuoso (Open Source Edition) | OpenLink Virtuoso Universal Server | Oracle | Oracle Rdb for OpenVMS | Pervasive | PostgreSQL | Progress 4GL | RDM Embedded | RDM Server | The SAS system | Sav Zigzag | ScimoreDB | SmallSQL | solidDB | SQLBase | SQLite | Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise | Sybase Adaptive Server IQ | Sybase SQL Anywhere (formerly known as Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere and Watcom SQL) | tdbengine | Teradata | TimesTen | txtSQL | Valentina (Database) | Vertica | VistaDB | VMDS | XSPRADA | |
Table 7 | Object-Oriented Systems | | Caché Cerebrum : Object-oriented network knowledge base ConceptBase Datawasp db4o Eloquera Database eXtremeDB EyeDB Facets (previously known as GemStone-J) Gemstone Database Management System Generic Object Oriented Database System (GOODS) Haley Systems JADE Jasmine Object Database JDOInstruments JODB (Java Objects Database) KiokuDB Magma Object Database MyOODB ODABA ObjectDB Objectivity/DB ObjectStore Oracle Orient ODBMS (software) Ozone Database Project Perst PostgreSQL Sidekar Starcounter Statice Versant Object Database Zope Object Database | | | | |
†The Labor Load is the actual cost of the employer’s share of payroll taxes, benefits, retirement contributions, administrative overhead to support the employee, insurance costs, cubicle rental and related costs, computer costs and maintenance, software licenses, training costs, travel expenses, and perks. It can easily exceed 40% of base annual salary. Source: http://www.cehandbook.com/cehandbook/docs/cehandbook_bulletin_settingrates.pdf |