Raising rates is very much a geographical thing. Some people simply can NOT raise their rates anymore than they have, if they want to work at all.

Why do you think I have so much time on my hands to test things, review things, etc. I spend the majority of my time dealing with unrelated things. Some weeks I might get real busy and put more than 40-50 hours in. But most of the time, I can go all week without doing anything that is billable hours or working on anything job related.
I'm at $100 per hour and at this price around here, I constantly have customers walking away "My price is crazy!". F^ them, I'm not working for less and dealing with their BS!

Oh Tom,
That oscilloscope I got from you many, many years ago finally broke. The vertical deflection still works but no horizontal sweep. Probably an easy fix but a new one just makes so much more sense. It was way past its time :)