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Comment by eagletusk | Hacker News Reader

Whoa $121k in Spain that's a superstar salary for a programmer there.

Average for programmer according to glassdoor is 35,000 euro = ~42,000 usd.

It seems odd that places in very low COL areas, particularly internationally, are getting 3-4x median salary for the same role, while places in rural/suburban US will be at or just slightly above median for that geo area.

I can't talk for Spain in particular but keep in mind that employer's social contributions can be pretty hefty in Europe. And working remote for an american company is opening a bag of hurt regarding taxes and banking.

For instance that guy making $128k in Montpellier in France, that's €108k right now. Assuming he works 45 weeks that's a daily rate of 480€. Not crazy for an experienced developer.

yeah thought the same. 100k USD is next to impossible for a web developer in Berlin for example, and salaries for devs in Barcelona are considerably lower than here, maybe a max of 80k USD. That guy is living like a king.

Berlin is a bit odd because of the huge changes in the last few years in companies starting offices here and the influx of VC funding.

SoundCloud for example, had a bunch of engineers earning around that. Probably all laid off now, though.

There are companies on StackOverflow jobs openly advertising €80-90k for senior developers now, and occasionally over 100k for specialist roles like ML or performance sensitive development in C++.

yes i am sure those salaries are possible for certain specialties in high demand, but in this case we are talking about Senior Web Developers. I think for pure devs without a lead or other management role, it's hard to get more than 75k EUR or 90k USD, and in BCN i have the feeling it is at least 10k less.

Did you check stack overflow jobs? What people are currently earning and what people are openly offering now has diverged quite a bit just in 18 months or so. It’s hurting the smaller companies with less budget and it’ll only get worse when Google opens their big office.

I have recently talked to some HR people and been looking myself, so that is just the feeling that i got. You mean the Google Campus in Kreuzberg ? Will they really employ a lot of people there ? Sounded more like something similar to the Factory

European software developers seem to be insultingly underpaid. I suspect it's more cultural than economic, and relates to the relative status of the profession in the EU.

I know the total costs of an employee are higher in the EU, but are they really 2x - 4x? Top companies in the US offer pretty robust (expensive) benefits, including healthcare. What would make the total cost of a dev in the EU getting paid $42k equal to the total cost of a US employee getting $121k (and total cost of $150k - 175k)?

In Germany employee costs are roughly 1.5x of gross, i would guess it's similar in Spain.

That’s not drastically different from the US, especially where gross is under $100k.

Applause from Slovenia to Buffers' Croatian developer! I'm sad to see actual reduction with this new 3.0 salary scheme. One would also need to factor in another 10-12% loss this year, which is depreciation of USD vs. EUR (HRK)

Am I to believe that the cost of living in Spain are 85% of San Francisco? I am Spanish and it is nowhere near, it'd be more like 20-50% depending on where in Spain.

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