On US Contract Rate Escalation

The key in dealing with marginal/offshored agencies is patience and persistence.

The verbatim jd in question [which appears to me as a Sr. position] was this:

Title: Linux Embedded Software Developer
Duration: Long Term Contract

Overview:
- Experince in Linux Embedded Software Developer
- EXPERIENCE WITH 16/32 BIT CONTROLLERS.
- EXPERIENCE IN LINUX KERNEL LEVEL PROGRAMMING.
- EXPERIENCE IN KERNEL CUSTOMIZATION, GRAPHICS
  LIBRARY USAGE/PORTING  &  SW ARCHITECTURE DESIGN.
- EXPERIENCE IN  TOUCH PANEL LCD, NAND MEMORY,
  RAM MEMORY, USB, MMC CARD & PROTOCOL DEFINITION
  OVER UART
- experience coding in C/C++.
- Agile project experience.
- Knowledge of wireless network protocols (Wi-Fi,
  BLE, ZigBee, IPv4, IPv6, etc.)
- Develop and design software that will interface
  with various embedded stacks (BLE, Thread, ZigBee)

Secondary Skills:
- GOOD WRITTEN AND VERBAL COMMUNICATION
- Experience with the spectrum tools used for
  source code management and development/test
  environments: VS, TFS, GIT, SVN, Bit Bucket,JIRA etc.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
  capable of writing appropriate documentation,
  and interacting with other engineering disciplines.
- Strong ability to communicate deep analytical
  results in forms that resonate with scientific and/or business collaborators, highlighting actionable insights.

Here's the rate escalation e-mail exchange I've had with this drone:

ulianov: What's the W-2 rate? Split per-diem offered?
Recruiter: Duration is long term & rate $45/hr on W2.
Commentary: This is the bare minimum ($90k/year) which
an H1-B is allowed by law.
ulianov: [Not replying for 3 hours.]
Recruiter: Duration is long term & rate $58/hr on W2
without benefits or $65/hr on 1099.
ulianov: Thank you for the rate adjustment. However
my customary W2 rate for outside California is $NN/h.
Recruiter: Please make it $70/hr on 1099
Commentary: This is less than I charge on W-2.
Also 1099 is unsuitable for me as it does not provide
per-diem.

Mind you most of these bottom of the barrel agencies do not want to provide split per-diem as they labour under the impression this is extra money they have to pay me... it's not. It's an IRS untaxed allowance for people working 60mi+ from their place of abode.

Educating them in the ways of the per-diem is painful so my advice is this (should you qualify for per-diem): if a recruiter is clueless about the per-diem then hang up.

-ulianov