It might help to specify that you're looking to hire someone, rather than get hired. But generally, consultants don't let the market set their rate. 😛

They don’t but in most fields there tends to develop some kind of range

I run a consulting firm with the past 15 years in the large scale e-commerce space, I could give a range like this for somebody in that space. I’m interested in what that means in the clojure space (which admittedly is diverse as clojure is a language used for a lot of things), perhaps especially since clojure ranked high on the salaries aspect of the s.o. survey.

I guess I don't really have a great answer for you because I can't speak for the market. My rate is fixed per project and it varies depending on the client, size, complexity, and value of the project to my clients. My suggestion would be to think about what you're trying to accomplish and what kind of budget you're willing to spend.

yeah, might be there is no good answer here.

It would have been interesting to understand some of the drivers that brought clojure to the top of the s.o. survey. Could be clojure devs in general are just more senior?

also clojure being somewhat niche still, I suspect getting any actual statistics on distributions is probably out of the question.

Yeah the closest thing to compensation stats is the stackoverflow survey you alluded to.

oh well, I guess that will have to do for an answer. Thank you for taking the time @U1Z5X06NP

Np !

I'd calculate this by taking whatever one's notion of a senior-developer-rate is, and multiply it by 1.2 i.e. the "niche premium". clojure is a niche but at the same time it's a general-purpose language - for real niche domains the factor could be something like 1.5, 2.0

@U4VDXB2TU I haven't done consulting work for a decade now but "back then" my hourly rate was $100-200 depending on the project and the client: how long was the engagement, how interesting was it, did I like the client, did they want architectural guidance, mentoring, "just" development, all sorts of factors.

I have no idea how that compared to the market then or now but that range got me enough work to be comfortable without being overworked, and I had clients all around the world for several years.

Some clients wouldn't pay those rates, others thought they were "very reasonable"... so many factors involved across the board...

Great with some real life feedback! This is more or less in line with what my gut feeling was telling me…perhaps with a slight modification for the rampant inflation the past couple of years. This aspect is kind of opaque and hard to get a handle on, both as an employer and as a consultant - so thank you @U45T93RA6 and @U04V70XH6 !