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Comment by YeGoblynQueenne | Hacker News Reader

Having worked as a programmer for 6 years in an EU country, the salaries are pretty reasonable, in the top tier of office workers, below exec level.

Maybe it's the US programmers, particularly the ones in Sillicon Valley that are being over - paid? The way I understand it, you can only expect six-figure salaries for working in one of the top companies in SV, and that only if you have graduated from one of the top universities in the area.

Also, there are six-figure salaries in the EU for programmers. You just have to know a bit of COBOL and not be afraid of biig scaary mainframes :0

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People fresh out of school are making six figures, its common. Software produces massive value, we arent overpaid, we are underpaid.

Sorry but this is such bullshit. Not only in the Bay Area, but in Seattle, Boston, NYC etc... 6 figures is definitely NOT expected only from FAANGs. Any startup paying less than 90/100k to juniors, 150/200k to seniors won't find any engineers. FAANGs pay 200 to 300k. My graduating class last May had $105k average salary in the Bay Area and for me finding a 6 figure job wasn't even that hard. It's a bit ridiculous to argue the entire US tech industry is overpaid. Maybe EU still can't see how tech is changing everything and engineers are the most important part of the company. EU is very far behind and is not willing to catch up.

I'm sorry, but comparing just the gross pay between EU and US is superficial at best.

(Taking Germany as an example, single, no kids) If you're offered say 100k in Germany - due to heavy tax-burden and social security costs - you will get less than 60k net. But what is hidden from your paycheck is that the company has to double your social security. So in reality you're getting paid 115k.

If you make more than 250k, that means you get an extra slap on the wrist: "wealthy tax" means every € you make above 250k gets taxed at an excessive 45%. Which is why at that kind of pay employees seek out different kinds of compensation schemes. And because of these schemes those people often aren't count in the employment statistics and thus lower the average pay.

On the plus side: From what I hear from European expats in the US, a lot of your high pay gets eaten by having to pay private enterprises for things that are provided by the government in Europe (getting a degree, good schools or kindergartens, healthcare, using the courts/legal system etc).

Well as I said, in the US if you have an engineering/CS/math etc degree from a reasonably good uni and want to work in tech, finding a 6 figure job in a major city stratight-outta-college is not only easy but also is the norm. Whereas looking at glassdoor expecting a 100k job straight-outta-college in Berlin is pretty much impossible, you better expect half of that compensation, and even then there is a chance to not find a job. So your math is unnecessary. Especially the wealth tax part. I can't even see 250k compensations for engineers, say, in Berlin even for senior engineers.

Like I said, there are a couple of 250k jobs in Germany, they aren’t just part of the statistics of glassdoor et al.

So let’s start with entry level: say 100k at Bay-Faang and 60k at a Berlin startup. Since you’re paid USD, 100k are actually just 88k.

Your cost of living will be a lot higher in say SF than in Berlin so it begs the question: Is 28k more a year worth it? How much of that goes to paying back student debt, housing, healthcare (the big ticket items eventually) and - if you plan on having kids - kindergarten and education?

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