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> In Europe most PhD students earn pretty close to what their starting salary fresh out of school would be.

I'd be surprised if this were the case. In the UK, stipend is ~£16k.

You do get to keep student benefits, e.g. no council tax and don't pay taxes but even then it's below what a lot (most?) graduates make.

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It is well-known that UK doctoral scholarships (as well as postdocs) are pretty low, especially considering the cost of life there.

In the rest of Europe, grandparent's remark mostly holds. In France, for instance, students get bout 1.7kEUR/month [0], and life is cheaper (unless you're in Paris). Maybe you'd get a slightly higher salary in a company, but the difference is not that big.

[0]: https://academicpositions.com/career-advice/professor-salari...

For germany, I've heard of people getting around 2.7k € per month in CS (so around 32k € per year). Definitely below industry starting salaries (which are around 50-60k as far as I heard), but still decent.

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