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Comment by Hamuko | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's much more expensive to hire an employee in the UK than in the US.

The real money is in the US - their wages dwarf UK's and Western Europe's programmers' salaries no matter how you look at it.

I'd actually be pretty surprised if the fully loaded cost of an employee in the UK was higher than an equivalent in the US.

Mind you - I'd love to see hard figures!

In the UK on an £80k ($108k) salary an employer would have to pay 89,820.08 ($120222), plus pension contributions and the employee would receive £55,092.76 ($73740)

In California someone paid $120k Gross I think would receive $79548, before healthcare deductions (optional private healthcare in the UK is typically about $700 a year for a single person of working age, in the US I believe premiums (employer and employee) are more like $7000 a year)

Overall at the $120k range it seems a similar cost in the UK vs California. Office space in London is probably higher than in SF, but that doesn't apply for remote workers.

It's much more expensive to hire in the US than UK, for engineering in particular.

Context - We have a UK company with US parent, and choose to hire in the UK for this reason.

Do you mean expensive in terms of taxes, the market commending a higher salary, or other reasons?

> Do you mean expensive in terms of taxes, the market commending a higher salary, or other reasons?

The market. The US market for high-salaried knowledge work always pays more, whether is Tech, Finance, Legal etc.

In general, if you're a high-earner/rich, America is a great place to be. If you're poor, the UK offers more support and protections, but this is a digression.

I wonder why would that be or where would that extra money would be going given we're talking pre-tax figures.

For one, UK employers would pay an additional £10k in Employers National Insurance on an £80k salary. https://listentotaxman.com/?year=2021&taxregion=uk&age=0&tim...

(Partially answering your "why", not commenting on whether the original statement is true.)

For the US

"the average health insurance cost for employers was $16,253 annually"

https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/cost-of-employer-sponsored-h...

Now some employers in the UK add private health care as a benefit of course.

Company private health plans in the UK don't cost anything like those in the US, though: They don't need top cover everything because the NHS will pick up things they don't.

> Now some employers in the UK add private health care as a benefit of course.

https://job-prices.co.uk/private-health-insurance-cost/

Average is £74 a month, or $1200 a year.

Given the same salaries in both countries, it's probably more expensive to hire that employee in the US given that the US firm is expected to pay for fairly expensive health insurance.

UK firms pay for private health insurance too, but that's supplemental insurance on top of NHS coverage.

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