As a self employed contractor for the past decade, I sympathize, and agree with all your statements about how contractors do not have the same benefits as employees.
No paid sick leave, no paid time off, no employer match for retirement plan contributions, no employer contribution to Social Security, no company car, etc.
However, what all that means is that you have to make sure your clients pay you enough to cover all those. When you negotiate a contract, you have to figure out what hourly rate you can live with.
Nominal full time is 2080 hours a year. Subtract from that four weeks for time off (vacation, holidays, family, and sick days), and you’re down to 1920 hours.
Multiply your hourly rate (say $50/hour) by that 1920, and you get your top line revenue of $96,000/year.
Subtract your vehicle expenses of say $6000/year, if you drive your own vehicle for work, and you’re down to $90,000.
Paying 15.3% self employment taxes takes that down to $76,230.
Setting aside 20% for retirement savings plus taxable emergency fund (say $16,230 to make the math easier) brings you to $60,000.
Then you to figure out your income tax which depends on where you live, whether or not you’re married, what other income you and your hypothetical spouse have, etc. If the income tax for your situation on $60,000 is say $12,000, you have to live on the remaining $48,000, which translates to $4000/month.
Of course, the $50/hour is a made up number, and you can plug in any other number. That’s not the point. The point is that you have to calculate in advance what hourly rate is a livable wage for you given the details of your situation, including your work-related expenses.
If you’re offered less, demand more. If the company refuses, walk away. If you don’t have any better options, find a side gig to make up the shortfall, or economize on your expenses.
The bottom line is that nobody will look out for you as well as you will, so it’s up to you to do a good job doing that. A while back I wrote up a formula to help you figure out the rate you should charge.
