Hacker News Reader

Comment by y4mi | Hacker News Reader

I am pretty sure they're saying $200k before taxes. It's equivalent wage in Germany would be 150k€, as the employer has to pay about 21% on top of the salary for social securities.

I agree that these numbers always sound outlandish (I'm from Germany too), but they do seem to be true. Do keep in mind that while the wage gap is bad here, its several times worse in the USA.

View on HN

I know it is pre-tax. I also know that there are benefits in Europe that simply do not exist in the US - minimum of 25 days of actual vacation and not that "you may travel for a few days, but you are still on-call" thing that people in the US call "holidays", Elternzeit, etc...

But still, no one would claim that is easy to get a 90k€ salary in Germany, or that "if you are not asking that much then what are you doing". For 150, you have to be way above average or you have to running your own business.

You have more then 25 days of "real" vacation at all the major tech companies in the USA. Pretty much all the issues that people mention in the USA (healthcare, vacation, maternity leave, etc) are non issues for employees in our industry.

The only true risk is becoming unemployable for some reason and losing your job. USA tech might fly higher but can crater way lower.

Is there any company in the US where parents can take (collectively) up to 14 months of leave while still receiving 2/3 of their salary?

More importantly: do people actually take it?

Or 49 weeks at 100%, like here in Norway.

My teammate took 6 months off paid for her maternity leave but in general I can't really say. It's not a benefit I've looked much into; I'm male and don't plan on having kids this decade.

No 200K doesn't include say things like 401K contribution or health contribution from employer's side. So if you are going to top German salary with employer contribution, you need to do the same with USA salary.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com