3x is the low end. I try to keep my factory at 6x . When you try to run at 3x, then you may drift down to 2x or less. If you aim for 6x, then you survive fine when it drifts down to 4x, and you are doing great when it goes up to 10x.

I think that people who aren't employers can lose sight of the fact that some people are actually worth negative money per hour. Some people, even at $8.05 per hour, are not worth even that. Others, like the mythical 10x programmer, are worth 10x the high wage you pay them (or more). A huge variation.

Example. Joe makes $8.05 sweeping the floor. Joe is not very diligent with his work, and sweeps some aluminum dust and debris into a pile of iron dust and debris, accidentally creates thermite and sets the corner of the factory on fire. This now costs in one day what Joe would have made in a year (this actually happened to me, last month. Thanks Bryan for putting it out).

Example 2 (another true story! a good friend's company) Roy is drilling holes in a hydraulic press, actually in a dozen hydraulic presses that are all sold and need to ship. He breaks the 1" drill bit he is using, and undaunted and unwilling to tell anyone, he replaces the 1" bit with a smaller 15/16" bit and continues drilling. The presses ship out, all 12 of them, very heavy and with high shipping costs ($800 for the press and $200 for the shipping), and they get delivered to the customers. Yay! A hard busy week, but it all went out! Yay! bonuses for everyone! Then next week the phone starts ringing and it is discovered that all 12 presses are not unusable - the hole is too small to fit the piece that goes into it. All 12 presses come back, shipping borne both ways by manufacturer, and the presses are scrapped and replaced. Roy caused over $10,000 in losses for a very small company in exchange for the $300 dollars in pay. Roy was worth -$250 per hour that week. Negative $250 per hour.

Of course we want twice the skills for half the pay. I would settle for twice the skills for twice the pay though. It is just so hard to find the "twice the skills" part. I would be delighted to find 1x the skills, even that is hard. When you find the person with 10x the skills, I recommend making it so they never want to leave. Equity in the company (or a cage of some kind in the basement, LOL)