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Depends on how fortuitous I think the market is for my skills at that moment. If I felt I had a good shot at a number of known FTE openings then a contract could harm those prospects so maybe offset that with 140%+ of previous salary. If I'm not so lucky then the bar is 50-60%, realistically.

at a certain point it's 'whats the bare minimum I can scrape by with'

Depends on who I'm talking to, for what position. For a bigger company, I'll start higher than my last salary (accounting for variability in employment, plus self-employment taxes and paying my own health insurance). I'll go lower for friends, or friends of friends, or things I want to work on.

I was similar. How much does my family need to stay afloat and start there. And realising from this thread being Australian is handy.

I'd be insane not to accept less.

I'm at "Is it more then unemployment"

My answers might be too ‘the way it used to be’ but I’d hope to only accept lower if I was unemployed and needed a bridge to the next gig. I would generally look for higher rates for contract (idk ~120%) because of the end date / uncertainty / hassle.

Yeah, as a freelancer for ten years that dipped my toe in W2 work and then got laid off, this seems about right. If it's a big name contract with deep pockets sometimes you can get away +30 or +40%, but +20% seems about average.

Yeah, exactly this.

There are a LOT more senior contract roles this time around than when I was laid off two years ago. I think that’s been made possible by a lot more seniors feeling desperate enough to accept them

This.

makes sense. i’m seeing numbers both wildly higher and wildly lower than i’d expect and it’s baffling me why both exist at the same time

this is assuming part time. full time, my original salary yes