That $99 goes to the contractor, not the employee. There's a ton of overhead and profiting that comes out of that $99. I won't even hazard a guess at how much of that $99 actually makes it to the guy or gal's pocket.

That said, it's not a bad living wage. I suspect below industry standard though, is what these folks are saying.

You can't compare contracting rates with regular salaries. There are a lot of costs involved for equipment, facilities, taxes, and just plain uncertainty (a contractor is often not working 50 weeks per year, not even close, because they have to find a new project frequently). Rule of thumb is to consider a contracting rate as equivalent to a regular job that pays half as much.

From my experience as a contractor, I'm betting the actual employee sees less than half of that. Perhaps a lot less.

That doesn't include benefits. Any benefits (such as health insurance) would come out of that. I believe the rule of thumb is to add on 20% of a salary for cost of benefits. So this would be closer to a salary of $165k, plus benefits.

$99 an hour turns into about 50$ after it goes through companies pockets.

Speaking from experience as capture manager.