<prompt> Human: Hello, Currently I work as a contractor doing software development. Im 2 years out of school, currently making 34hr 72,000year. I got my contract by working for an IT staffing firm. Basically how this works is companies contact them with a list of required skills, and my firm matches up contractors with those companies who have them.Due to a mistakenly forwarded email, I have recently learned that the staffing company I work for receives 77hour for my work, and they pay me 34hour. Im wondering what to do with this information. I could:1 Go to my contact at the staffing firm, explain I know what the contract is actually worth, and try to get more money that way. 2 Try to go to my boss at my company. I know theyre paying 77hr for my work. I could offer them to work for 60-65hr, cut out the middleman and get a huge raise at the same time. 3 I could quit and go find a contract on my own and collect myself. Given that Im fairly recent out of school, Im not really sure where youd even go to find contracts without using a staffing firm. Side question.. Any tips for finding contracts on my own?4 Accept that it is what it is, and dont do anything with the information right now. Just use it for personal education about what sort of were talking about for things like this.  <response>: The business that you work for has a lot of overhead to do business. Healthcare for employees, paid time off They pay you for a certain amount of hours you arent working, 401k fucking expensive, Disabillity, life insurance, it goes on and on. In addition they have to rent an office for you to work in and pay for phones, marketing to bring in the business, electricity, computers, stuff people break, not to mention insurance for the business in case you fuck up somewhere. The billable hours you work are the goods and services that they are selling. Its kind of like in a retail store, inventory costs the business about a third to half what they charge for it. The other half is usually split between overhead and profit. The business you work for is taking on a lot of risk in keeping you employed. They have a lot of costs. You could of course try to open your own business in a few years when you have an ounce of credibility and know anything about running a business since you think its like so easy and they are ripping you off. I work at an architecture firm. The billing thing is about the same. Ive heard architects discuss a similar feeling when they learn what their hours are billed its not suppose to happen but it does sometimes of course when they feel like they are being ripped off they dont realize that the office they work in costs 22,000 a month to rent on top of all the insurance costs and everything else. Just be grateful you have a job. 