Wedge

Depends on country and skill level. I can usually get away with charging $30 per hour or so and that's considered cheap - but I tend to only take on things that interest me in the first place (so I get to do things I enjoy)

Any country, real life examples would be appreciated. And not only as a freelancer, if I look out for a full time job.

Well, about a year ago I applied for a full time PHP developer position in London, and the salary there was £34,000. Even allowing for it being in London where salaries are considerably higher (locally to me the equivalent would be about £26,500), that's about par for the course. (Note those figures are GBP not USD, add 40-50% on top for USD equivalent)

What you have to remember with salaried, though, is that the money isn't the only thing. The people you work with, work-life balance, these are important too. When I used to work for a large mortgage company, I turned down promotion to team leader more than once because I knew if I did, I'd end up working plenty more hours trying to sort out clusterfucks and not get paid overtime for it, and given that then I was already out the house at 5.30am, to be in work by 8am, leaving at 4.30pm, home at 7pm, any more hours and I wasn't interested.

Thanks about that, the salary figures you're mentioning are yearly correct?

Yup, yearly.

Thanks, after doing a lot of research it seems the field is right for me. I'll probably be pursuing this further.

Entry level is ~40k USD for web development in the Southwest US.

I had a question, do you have formal education in computer science?

I have what's called an "A" Level in Computing, it's a UK qualification, roughly like a US high school diploma, nothing higher. A degree does give you a little more leverage, but experience and portfolio is key.

Does the quality of university make a difference? I do plan on doing proper post school 4 year course but I want to know if the university will make that much of a difference.

I doubt it, don't really know. Though if it's a really well known university it could make a difference, e.g. Harvard or Yale comes to mind.

Depends on plenty of things...
I don't have any diploma (except the basic Baccalauréat), and I actually gave up on uni (Japanese language studies) after I found a job as a translator. My belief is that the best diploma is a full curriculum vitae. Although you probably can't expect as high a salary if you don't have a diploma -- but then again, it makes it even more likely for you to get the job in the first place.

Down here (Bristol), Java developers can demand up to £45k if they're experienced, PHP developers can also fetch up to £40k but its more of a flooded market. .net developers are ten a penny!!