The funny part is that $250/hr isn’t even that crazy for freelance work, depending on where you live and what field you work in. Freelancers frequently charge anywhere from 2-5x their normal hourly rate, to account for the fact that they’re not getting full time benefits. They’re paying for their own liability insurance, their own healthcare, their own equipment, their non-billable hours, etc… The higher rate is to cover all of the things that an employer would typically cover.

And lots of managers don’t even mind paying it, because it comes out of a different budget than their payroll. I’ve seen some orgs where they don’t even bother following up on contractor invoices unless they’re at least 5 digits. $9000 bill for a contractor? Psh, that’s a drop in the bucket. Hell, that $9000 wouldn’t even cover a full 40 hour work week in some fields.

Source: Was a freelancer for nearly a decade. I worked with several companies that would sign off on my $8000 invoices without even double checking them.