So as a contractor, I found out my tax burden is much higher than even I was expecting.  Not knowing anything about taxes, I was expecting something like 15%. 

NOPE.  

 If I live in Oregon, it comes out to about 33% of my current salary.  If I stay in Texas, it comes out to the mid 20s.  

1) Federal income tax.  2) State income tax.  3) Self Employed Tax.  Jeeeezus.   The self-employment tax is for social security and medicare. 

Why this sucks:  I have a lot of college loans to pay off.

Oregon has the highest state income tax at 9%.  Texas has zero.  Oregon doesn't have a sales tax, which ostensibly offsets part of the state income tax burden, but I hear prices are higher in Portland anyhow, so that doesn't help all that much in reality.  Oh, I know, I could live across the river from Portland in WA, which has no income tax.  No....

Here are my calculations of how much I'll actually be earning.  For each block, the top number is the gross income, and the bottom number is the real income after subtraction of taxes.  The first subtraction is the combined federal and state income taxes (zero in Texas).  The second subtraction is the self-employment tax.  I also did calculations for much higher salaries out of interest.  

$25/hr