Thing is, in the software world at least, you earn >25% more than Europeans in the US. Just look at salaries in London. Given the extraordinary cost of living, salaries are pitiful.
Why is that?
Why is that?
It depends much more on niche, how well your market yourself, and what type of companies you work for.
EDIT: Basically, never accept the first offer. Brits rarely negotiate, but I negotiated up my last salary 50% over the initial offer, after going in specifically knowing the top end of the stated salary band was lower than what I'd consider. If you take the initial offer, you're being paid less than your employer was willing to pay. I've never had an offer pulled, in London or elsewhere, over trying to negotiate it. I've declined positions where I didn't get it quite high enough, though.
If you take the initial offer, then you'll be very lucky to get a good deal.
And aim for niches. E.g. PHP devs are dime a dozen. Talk to a recruiter and flat out ask them what skills they get most demand for and highest salaries for now. Just be honest and tell them you're considering what to skill up in. I do backend/devops stuff with AWS and other cloud services etc, and that'd doing ok, but there are other opportunities. And network as much as you can. You'll get your salary up a lot if you're coming in via a suitable recommendation rather than the normal hiring channels.
Just did a quick calculation for Brazil and for an employee that earns $1000/month, the employer has to spend $1528/month ($1000 salary + $528 in taxes and mandatory benefits).
Then you pay the tax on your revenue.
Then the company pay tax on revenue.
Then politics wonder why France is not attractive to investments
I get decent insurance through my job, but it's still fucking stupid how much I have to spend before it kicks in. Even then, there are all kinds of clauses and stipulations and loop holes. I guarantee if and when I really need my insurance it will fail me and I'll still come out in debt. There simply is not a "pay money and don't worry" insurance plan out there.
I've never had diabetes. I called my doctor and it turned out they coded one of my visits wrong and said I had diabetes, and it had been in everyone's system for at least a couple of years. Wonderful. Got it fixed, at least.
Even with sufficient health care, I try to avoid the doctor because of the cost.
If that is generally true then that is one really big difference between the US and northern Europe and Scandinavia. I never think of money when I or any of my family visit a doctor or hospital. Here in Norway I have to pay about USD30 to visit my GP, various fees for medical tests and so on, and I have to pay something towards any prescriptions but there is a cap on how much I will have to pay each year (about USD150 for drugs). Beyond that limit it is all free (except that of course it is paid for out of general taxation).
Perhaps the GP was referring to the 10% without insurance
Just wanted to make this less abstract for you. Lack of insurance led to a more complex situation that underinsurance leaves me helpless to solve, while homelessness waits for me to choose health over shelter.
With a low deductible, I'm paying more up front so I can pay less if I need care. With an HSA and HDHP, I'm paying less for insurance and putting the difference into an interest-bearing account that I keep with me. Two different jobs that offered HDHPs also offered HSA contributions or matches.
Over time, my HSA has grown to roughly 3x my family's deductible. Tell me how I'm losing out?
From what I've heard in the US a senior developer in a comparable location, i.e. West Coast/East Coast makes at least $ 100k per year.
On top of that, many American software companies give out stock, which almost no European companies do.
If for any unfortunate reason you are not able to land a decent-payed job, the situation in Europe is much, much better.
So yes, top workers life Software Engineers may earn less. But the safety net for the whole population is way better in Europe.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates
Corporate tax Norway: 25%
Corporate tax US: 35%
Individual (Min/Max) Norway: 0%/46.9%
Individual (Min/Max) US: 0%-3%/52.9%
Payroll tax Norway: 0%-14.1%
Payroll tax US: 20.2%
VAT Norway: 10%-25%
VAT US: 0%-11.725%
The tax systems are different though, for Norway, the max tax bracket is from 950.000 NOK (a bit over 100k USD). You do not pay tax until you make around 80k and the rates are progressive. You do have loads of deductibles though like paid interest, children, transportation etc.
So I wouldn't say we pay vastly more in tax here, but we still get social services.
The salaries here are not on EU level, but a bit higher. As an analyst I make about 1.1 million NOK/year. From that I pay around 350k in tax and that is not too bad compared to what we get in exchange. I actually have no objections to paying the tax.
Edit: BTW, I work 37.5 hours a week and two of the days are from home. And I have 27 paid vacation days a year + the public holidays :)
Edit2: the tax stuff was mangled, reformatting
The effective tax rates are incredibly low for the upper class. Miniscule.
The middle class pays on average around 25% in income tax.
The good news is this means there's an incredibly simple answer for why the US is underinsured and undereducated: the average american is not willing to pay the amount of money it costs to insure and educate the lower class.
Sadly in the US, the idealisms of socialism often also comes with certain european-centric identities, or commonly bastardized into race ideologies where their proponents emphasize a socialist "utopia" like Scandinavia. These people emphasize this socialism on the basis of certain similar attributes where they can afford such promises to a small percentage, through the removal or exclusion of those they decide are not like them.
Breaking down the US economic system, one would be quick to notice that there does indeed exist a kind of socialist utopia much inline with euro-centric ideologies. One that even dwarfs the so called socialist bastion of Scandinavia and europe.
The point is: what are you going to do with all that money if you don't have the time to enjoy it? Even a cheap vacation can be more fun than slaving all year long and having only two weeks to do something with it.
In the U.S., your insurance isn't terminated upon loss of employment. I don't know of any physical ailments whose treatments an insurer can legally opt out of insuring. I believe in the possibility of the odd exception here or there, but nothing as endemic as you suggest.
> I don't want to sound like some troll or something but theres tonnes of articles that go through the differences.
I'm a software developer in the U.S., my friends, colleagues, and other acquaintances aren't dropping dead around me for want of health insurance. Your extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Mention of "tons of articles" isn't particularly persuasive.
However, if I want to put my wife and child on company health insurance, even the worst plan costs within $100 of my monthly rent.
It's not breaking the bank, but it is certainly a major part of our budget.
The highest healthcare costs per capita:
US $8,713 Switzerland $6,325 Norway $5,862 Netherlands $5,131 Sweden $4,904
Expensive yes, but not extreme compared to some of the other richest European countries.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/11/14/24-7...
edit: and anyway, your link vehemently disagrees with you on "extreme."
"While higher health care spending generally leads to better health outcomes, this is famously not the case in the United States. The country, which is one of the world's wealthiest, spends by far the most on health care. The United States spends around $8,700 per capita each year on health care, more than double the OECD average and well more than second place Switzerland.
"Despite the high spending, Americans are not anywhere near the world's healthiest. More than 35% of Americans are obese, one of the highest rate in the world, and exceptionally high compared with other countries spending the most on health. The United States is also the only top 10 country for health spending where the life expectancy does not exceed 80 years. Also, perhaps as a consequence of poor economic and social factors as well as the inefficient spending, adverse health outcomes such as infant mortality have increased in the United States. While in 2000, the incidence of infant mortality in the United States was lower than the OECD average, today it is higher."
Out of all of the countries you listed as expensive, only the U.S. has a system where you can pay thousands a year in premiums and yet still get zero coverage for your first 10k in medical expenses.
It's not hyperbole. It's simply just a fact. Other countries might also have high healthcare costs per capita, but at least they get what they pay for, and at least you don't end up bankrupt due to unforeseen medical emergencies.
And this is where it is unfair: If I am fairly wealthy (e.g. earning $150K/year in a not expensive city), then this is very affordable. However, someone earning $100K in the same city will pay the same premium - it'll hurt their wallet a lot more than mine. $100K will not get anyone government subsidies.
With tax-funded health care (as in Europe), the burden isn't on the poorer person, but on the richer one.
So, London might just be an outlier. Not taking Silicon Valley into account (which is another outlier, albeit in the opposite direction) in my experience US and EU rates for development work generally are quite similar
That certainly wasn't the case when I was working in London about 10 years ago. The going rate for a Java contractor with banking experience was about £600 per day (then $1,100).
Have things changed that much in 10 years?
In US our company offices are moving from major tech hub to smaller city. Initially most people decided to collect severance and find another job locally but now many are finding it difficult to find job with generic IT skills sets and reevaluating their initial decision.
But 600 pounds is now like $750. Assume 4 weeks vacation, public holidays, time between contracts and you should probably assume 200 paid days per year. That's 120k pounds/year or $150k/year. Not great.
Not sure what contracting rates are like now. It's been awhile. When I was doing it (more than 10 years ago), banking contract was often north of 500/day.
Thing is, those contracting in banking jobs can be hard to get. Typically you need experience in banking. If demand exceeds supply (as it did in the late 90s) then that's not a problem. When supply is relatively high (as it was in the early 2000s) then that's a huge barrier to entry.
If you're locked out of that field your rates are typically much lower (at the time more like ~300-350 a day).
E.g. direct with clients it's perfectly possible to get contracts at 1k/day+ in London for relatively normal development jobs outside of banking once you have relationships with the right companies and you approach them as a consultancy rather than presenting yourself as an individual developer.
I'm not in London, but I'm seriously considering sniffing around for jobs which can be done with transatlantic remote working. Sadly that's a rare and oversubscribed option :(