The headline is not the number
Two offers, same week, same city:
- Offer A: $45 an hour, salaried, benefits included
- Offer B: $75 an hour, 1099 contract
Offer B looks like a 67% raise. It is closer to a lateral move.
A 1099 contractor generally needs to charge 40 to 50% more than the equivalent salaried rate simply to break even.2 Everything an employer was quietly paying for now comes out of your gross.
What the employer was actually paying for
| Cost | Salaried | Contract |
|---|---|---|
| Employer half of payroll tax | Paid by employer | Yours — 15.3% self-employment tax on net |
| Health insurance | Usually subsidised | Yours — roughly $400–800/month individually |
| Paid leave and sick days | Included | Unpaid — every day off is lost income |
| Pension contribution | Often matched | Yours entirely |
| Professional liability insurance | Usually covered | Often yours |
| Documentation and admin time | Paid within salary | Frequently unbillable |
| Equipment, phone, mileage | Provided or reimbursed | Yours unless negotiated |
None of these are hidden. They are simply invisible when someone else is paying them.
The worked conversion
Take the $75 an hour contract, at 32 billable hours a week, 46 working weeks:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Gross billings (32 hrs × 46 wks × $75) | $110,400 |
| Self-employment tax (≈15.3% on net) | −$15,600 |
| Health insurance ($600/mo) | −$7,200 |
| Liability insurance and licensure | −$1,200 |
| Six weeks unpaid (leave, sickness, gaps) | already excluded above |
| Unbillable admin, ≈4 hrs/week | opportunity cost, not cash |
| Net before income tax | ≈ $86,400 |
| Effective rate on 36 hrs worked/week | ≈ $52/hr |
Against a salaried role at $45 an hour with benefits, the contract nets about $7 an hour more — real, but a long way from the 67% the headline implied. And that $7 buys you the volatility: an unfilled month is entirely your problem.
Rule of thumb: divide a contract rate by 1.45 to get its rough salaried equivalent. $75 ÷ 1.45 ≈ $52. $90 ÷ 1.45 ≈ $62. $60 ÷ 1.45 ≈ $41 — below most salaried BCBA rates.
Given contract rates commonly run $60 to $105 an hour,2 the bottom of that range is often worse than salaried employment and the top is genuinely better. The same market contains both.
When contract genuinely wins
Contract is not a worse deal. It is a different one, and it wins in specific situations:
- The rate clears break-even with margin. Above roughly $85 to $90 an hour for full-time-equivalent work, the arithmetic turns in your favour.
- You are covered elsewhere. A partner's health plan removes the single largest line item.
- You want genuine control. Choosing which cases to take, and refusing ones you should refuse, has value that does not appear in either column.
- You are filling a gap deliberately — assessment-only work, overflow, a defined project.
- You already run an entity. If you have an LLC and an accountant, the overhead is sunk.
- You are building towards independence. Contract work is how most independent practices start.
When it does not
- The rate is under $70 an hour for work that looks like a full-time job
- You are the only insurance — no partner's plan, no savings buffer
- Hours are assigned rather than chosen — you carry the risk without the control
- Travel and documentation are unbillable — that is a salaried job at contractor prices
- You need supervision hours signed off — contract arrangements often make this harder, not easier
The misclassification risk
This is the part almost nobody raises, and it cuts both ways.
If you are paid on 1099 but work assigned hours, under direction, using the employer's systems, exclusively for them — that arrangement may not reflect genuine independence. The exposure sits with both parties, and the practical consequences fall on you first: no unemployment cover, no workers' compensation, and a tax position built on a classification that may not hold.
Signals worth noticing:
- You are told when to work, not just what the deliverable is
- You cannot take other clients
- You use their equipment, their systems, their email
- You have a manager rather than a client
- The arrangement is indefinite with no defined scope
None of these individually settles anything. Together they describe employment.
This is not legal advice — I am not a lawyer, and classification tests vary by state. If the arrangement is ambiguous, that ambiguity is worth an hour of an employment lawyer's time before you sign, not after.
One related point: some contracts restrict working elsewhere. Enforceability of those restrictions varies considerably by state, and several states limit or void them outright.4 Read that clause specifically, because it interacts directly with the independence the classification depends on.
What to get in writing
Before you accept either arrangement:
- The rate, and exactly what it covers — billable definition in writing
- Whether travel time is paid, and at what rate
- Whether documentation and report writing are billable
- Who carries professional liability insurance
- Invoice terms — how often, paid within how many days, what happens when they are late
- Who supplies equipment, and who pays for licensure and continuing education
- Notice period, both directions
- Any restriction on working elsewhere, and for how long after
An employer that will not put items 1 through 3 in writing is telling you something about how the other five will go.
Openings on PayRecruiter state whether a role is contract or salaried and what it pays, so you can run the break-even before you spend an hour on an interview rather than after. Request access
Request access →Common questions
01How much more should a 1099 BCBA charge than a salaried one?
Generally 40 to 50% more per hour just to break even. That covers self-employment tax at 15.3% on net earnings, individual health insurance at roughly $400 to $800 a month, no paid leave, no employer pension contribution, and unpaid administrative time.
02Is $75 an hour a good contract rate for a BCBA?
It is roughly equivalent to $45 an hour salaried, so whether it is good depends entirely on what you are comparing it to. Against a $45 salaried role it is a lateral move; against $60 salaried it is a pay cut.
03What do contract BCBA rates actually range from?
Commonly $60 to $105 an hour. Because the break-even against a salaried role sits around a 40 to 50% premium, the bottom of that range is often worse than salaried employment and the top is genuinely better.
04Can a BCBA be an independent contractor?
Yes, where the arrangement genuinely reflects independence — you control how and when the work is done, you can work for others, you carry your own insurance. Being paid 1099 while working assigned hours under direction is a misclassification risk. This is not legal advice; take it to an employment lawyer if the arrangement is ambiguous.
05What should be in writing before I accept a contract role?
The rate and what it covers, who pays for liability insurance, whether travel and documentation time are billable, how and when invoices are paid, who supplies equipment, notice terms on both sides, and any restriction on working elsewhere.
Sources
- 01CertifyND ABA — BCBA salary by state 2026certifyndaba.com/blog/salary-compensation/bcba-salar
- 02CertifyND ABA — remote BCBA jobs guidecertifyndaba.com/blog/job-search/remote-bcba-jobs-gu
- 03Research.com — 2026 BCBA and ABA salary by stateresearch.com/careers/bcba-and-aba-salary-by-state
- 04Foley & Lardner — noncompete agreements, federal and state overview 2026www.foley.com/insights/publications/2026/07/noncompe