Anecdote: I have been a software dev in networking/internet/web/databases &related since before there was an internet. I occasionally get recruiter spam still, and was shocked to see spams recently from contractor agencies in the Seattle area (meaning, the agency hires you W-2 and pays your salary but you labor at the company they place you at - they bill the client X$ and you get, maybe if you're lucky (X * 0.7)$), offering hourly rates that are less than I was getting (non-inflation-adjusted) as a W-2 contractor in the region back in the 90s. Not only that, but the work was on-site and required the software developer employee be "on call" for long periods. Really shitty-sounding work (client = a rather large, well-known, union-hostile retailer) at a really shitty rate in a super-expensive metro. Yeah, no.