The power of Inspect Element. This is exactly how I found out I was underpaid[1]. A company I worked for used a software called erecruit to manage my contracts. When you click on a clients name, it makes an ajax request to fetch the data. Being a web developer, I inspected the data returned.
I'm pretty sure all the developer did was:
echo json_encode($queryResult);
I saw how much I was getting paid vs how much they were charging clients. I quickly changed my prices after that.
I think this is a lesson lots of early AJAX/client-side coders should be forced to learn. When you do a `SELECT * FROM` and return the entire result, that data is visible on the client end in full detail (if you're familiar with how to use the browser's dev tools that is). Maybe you only make some of that data visible to the user in the UI, but the data you didn't use is still part of that AJAX return. Only send to the browser the data you actually need!
Every consulting firm pays their employees way less than the hourly rate they bill clients. That's how the firm exists. Good for you that you were in a situation to dictate your compensation.
I'm pretty sure all the developer did was:
I saw how much I was getting paid vs how much they were charging clients. I quickly changed my prices after that.[1]: https://idiallo.com/blog/how-much-do-you-charge-for-your-wor...