The cost maths (Chapter 13)

The cost maths (Chapter 13)

The build-versus-subscribe sum is built from two public inputs: a base wage and a loading factor for benefits and overhead. Both are sourced. The base wage figures come from DataUSA, which republishes US Census ACS and BLS data with citation, so treat them as official-derived. The loading factor comes straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

InputFigure (USD)SourceUS Software Developer, average annual wage (2024)~$154,076DataUSA (Census ACS PUMS / BLS) — datausa.io/profile/soc/software-developersUS Computer & Information Systems Manager, average annual wage (2024)~$155,405DataUSA — datausa.io/profile/soc/computer-information-systems-managersBenefits as share of total compensation, private industry≈ 29.9% (a 1.43× loading on base wage)BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htmFully-loaded developer cost (own calculation: ~$154,076 × 1.43)≈ $220,000/yr (~$18,000/mo)derived from the two rows above

For context on the senior-talent ceiling, not a typical SMB number:

Context figureFigure (USD)SourcePrincipal Engineer, total compensation (2025)~$551,000Levels.fyi 2025 — levels.fyi/2025/Staff Engineer, total compensation (2025)~$457,000Levels.fyi 2025 — same as above

These two are a market-top reference. Treat them as the ceiling, not the rate you would pay for a first engineering hire.

Hiring timelines

One figure supports the point that hiring is slow and getting slower. It covers all roles, not engineering alone, and we flag that caveat wherever the number appears.

ClaimFigureSourceTime-to-fill rose from 43.6 days (2022) to 59.7 days (2025), +37%, all roles combined43.6 → 59.7 daysGreenhouse recruiting benchmarks — greenhouse.com/recruiting-benchmarks

A word on what isn't here

You will notice some numbers the market throws around that this book does not quote: a headline day rate for a fractional CTO, a tidy "a bad hire costs 30% of first-year salary" figure, a specific elite-versus-everyone-else delivery multiplier. We left them out on purpose. We couldn't trace any of them to a source that survives a second look, and a book that asks you to anchor every spend to a checkable outcome can't itself run on numbers it can't stand behind. Where a figure wouldn't hold, we wrote the sentence without it.

All URLs were live and checked during the research pass for this book. Currency conversions, where a source published in a currency other than US dollars, use the basis recorded alongside each figure.

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