Or rather why Europe pays so bad.
I wonder whats the reason behind many american companies being able to pay 200-400kusd a year while its hard to get past 100k usd in the richer countries of Europe (Germany, Scandinavia, UK, etc.). A junior in USA gets more than a senior in Europe. And after 10 years the american may get 2-4x the salary of the european counterpart. In contrast life in USA is often even cheaper.
- Are european companies greedy?
- Are european companies less competitive?
- Are the high taxes and equality in Europe pushing companies to not try harder to reward talent while USA rewards the high performers as they can see the benefits it brings?
USA paying high salaries = “Europe pays so bad”… You realize that there is more to the world than just USA and Europe right?
Comparatively to the rest of the western world, western Europe dev salaries are garbage.
I live in the UK and have friends in Germany, France and Norway. Senior/mid salaries are fairly similar, so is the cost of living. But, I could get the same job in Poland by taking a 10-15% salary cut, living there my cost of living would go down by approx 40%. I would be noticeably wealthier there doing the same job I do in the UK.
Same story for many eastern european countries, they pay better for skilled labour but way worse for unskilled labour.
The only thing keeping me here is family and friends.
Yeah pay can be worse than in europe, obviously, but it could also be better (to avoid brain drain, which is certainly happening…)