Hacker News Reader

Comment by ck425 | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone explain how the US got to such ridiculously high salaries for Tech compared to most other countries? As someone working in the UK I'm more than a little jealous and tempted to try the visa gauntlet though it seems like a long shot.

View on HN

I think part of it is cultural. The majority of Americans speak English as a primary language, and there's only one set of federal laws. That makes it easier to grow your userbase.The EU has a large number of residents, but also has 24 official languages, and the member countries have much more distinct cultures. Localization can be a huge problem for startups there. The potential for growth and access to investment capital means tech companies can and do pay engineers very well. Of course there is China, but China also has a lot of unicorns, and it looks like Chinese developers get paid a lot of money compared to the average income.

I don't buy this as a reason. The UK has a thriving startup scene, as do certain cities in Europe. Yet that hasn't translated into higher pay anywhere near as much as it has in the US.

I think it's because the US tech companies have been far more successful in the the global technology industry than other countries which has led to higher profits which has led to increased salaries. Also in order to stay ahead of the rest of the world, the top tech companies aggressively poach the best engineers from companies all over the world, which leads to higher salaries as well.

Its possible in the London to get close-ish to these crazy US salaries, you just have to join a Silicon Valley based company with operations in London (e.g. FAANG, and a few others)

Source: I did that, and my comp is around ~£120k + options (unsure how to calculate the value of them) for an L4 engineer

My previous salary was £67k...

Damn. Is that mostly just salary? Tbh I wouldn't want to live in London. Even on £120k I'd still have a long commute and probably struggle to own property / not want to since the market is terrible down there.

I think the real question is backwards - why don't they pay well for tech in the UK? It isn't ridiculously high if they are earning profits for the company net. The upper end certainly are and it certainly isn't for lack of trying to lower labor expenses.

Pay generally is higher in the US than the UK.

US median income is $63,688/household

UK median income is GBP29,400/household, or about $38,400 US

There will be some differences due to how the two countries compute the figures (I believe the disparity is slightly smaller than the numbers suggest), but these numbers are not close to each other.

I don't have any citations for this - but I'm assuming it's all a result of the US and it's venture capital / investment scene... combined with laws that favor company rights over worker rights - creates the right environment for throwing money around at companies....

Alternatively, the internet was a shot in the dark that took off and gave the US a massive head start?

The middle ground is finding a US multinational that's hiring in the UK or Ireland. Although Dublin has nicely replicated the insane property prices and commuting disaster that comes with growth.

The US mega-salaries also appear to be very localised?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com