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Why USA pays so well to developers (or rarher Europe pays so bad) (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 years ago by HelloLemmySup@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

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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?

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[+] rmam@programming.dev 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Apple earns $2.4m per employee per year... and most of their employees are sales/support staff. They don't have hundreds of thousands working in R&D. The other big tech companies earn less, but still well above the salary for any employee except for C-level executives.

The reality is they should probably pay even more than they are. Every small tech company I've worked for spends nearly 100% of their revenue on salaries (without paying well compared to the big tech companies).

[–] valence_engineer@programming.dev 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

but some sources state that the bare minimum salary to be happy in places like Seattle, where these engineers need to be located, is around $117k/year.

Those sources also state that worldwide the number to be minimally happy is $95k. I'm going to assume Europe is at least at the global average and likely a bit above since the US on average is at $105k. So if you go by those studies then the new grad in Seattle making $120k is minimally happy while the seasoned engineer in Germany making $90k is not. Not that I agree but if we're going by the study you mentioned then that's the conclusion.