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Comment by di4na | Hacker News Reader

Keep in mind that this salary for the US do not count in healthcare and pension that the UK nurse is entitled to. I know it may feel like a nitpick, but it does make a huge difference when you add that cost of living.

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The salary for the US also doesn’t count the healthcare and retirement benefits a US nurse is entitled to. US nurses generally receive health insurance coverage. As to pension benefits, NHS pensions for new employees aren’t very good. Each year, you earn 1/54th of that year’s salary as a defined benefit. If you work 40 years, you’re entitled to a pension of 75% of your average salary. Say that your career average salary is 30,000 pounds.[1] That gives you a pension about equal to your starting salary, or $30,000. That’s about what US social security would pay out for someone in that income level.

Also note that the retirement contribution for the NHS is about 9%, versus the 6.2% social security contribution.

[1] Apparently nursing salaries go up about 20% for nurses with more than 20 years of experience: https://blog.jobmedic.co.uk/nursing-salary-list.

This doesn't seem to hold up to scrutiny. Are you saying it's worse to double your salary but sacrifice a pension? How many years do people spend in the workforce? Usually 25 at least often 30 or more (say you start work at 21 and retire at 55, that would be 34 years). Life expectancy at 60 is around 25 years [1], actually 23 for USA, so people would be collecting pension about the same 30 years as they spent working. So unless your pension is equal to your salary, then doubling your salary is the better choice. Actually it's much better than that, because this money can be invested and you'll be gaining decades of interest on these savings.

And that doesn't even scratch the fact that pensions are subject to political changes and tax cuts. That pension could go away if politicians decide it's too expensive to pay out.

1. https://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-da...

This. The American urge to compare only base salaries (because that's all you have in America) is why Americans don't understand what they're missing. It's not in the salary! Its in the alleviation of $1000/month medical insurance premiums, in addition to $4000 ER visits (inclusive of said insurance), and pensions.

And before someone bemoans the taxes, let me clarify that those medical premiums and ER visits are AFTER-TAX dollars, so add an additional 15-30% on top.

The annual base salaries Americans quote are AFTER medical insurance premiums. They are not deducted from your quoted base pay.

This is completely untrue.

I'm an American citizen and not a single one of the 6+ W2 jobs I've held have quoted the base salary with insurance premiums deducted.

The quoted base salary does not include the employer paid portion of health insurance. For the 57% of people who receive health insurance coverage through their employer, that amounts on average to 82% of total premiums.

Minor addendum: Unless you decide on a plan whose cost is greater than the base plan provided by the employer, in which case the difference is deducted from your salary.

The NHS nurse is also paying health insurance and pension contributions! An online calculator shows they’d pay a national insurance contribution of 2,500 pounds and a pension contribution of 2,700 pounds.

Also, nurses don’t pay $1,000 per month in insurance premiums in the US. 57% of Americans have employer provided insurance, and employers cover on average 82% of premiums. A single US nurse likely would pay less in out of pocket premiums than the UK nurse’s national insurance contribution would be.

That’s why the US health situation persists. Most voters (who skew higher-income, older, and more established) don’t see the real cost of health insurance premiums because they’re an employer-provided benefit.

For my education, is this pension provided by the employer, or is this a state-provided pension?

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