Employers in the US do the same thing. On top of your salary they pay ~7% for your retirement (social security, the public retirement), then taxes for your unemployment and a bunch of state taxes, and if you work in tech they pay for your health insurance (the one at my previous employer was $600/month). Usually they will also match money you'll put into your private retirement account. That's usually another $7-9k in good tech companies. I.e. When you're paid $100k in the US in tech, your employer pays at least $120k as well. So that doesn't explain the difference at all.