You can't have your cake and eat it too. You like your social safety net? You like stronger worker protection? Long vacations? Someone has to pay for all of it. Either through higher taxes or lower wages.
Yet Google will happily pay the same role less than half when hired here.
I've done my research: this is cultural inertia, as another commenter alluded to. "We pay this much because that's what the market rate is for [country in Europe]".
[1] https://www.detdanskearbejdsmarked.dk/den-danske-model/portr...
While engineers may be more affordable in Europe, there are trade-offs to consider. One such trade-off is the significant time zone difference between California and Europe, making synchronization challenging. Additionally, cultural synchronization can be difficult, and there is significant value in having teams that share the same figurative and literal language.
The market rates are lower because there is no market. FTA I only recognize one European company with somewhat global reach (booking.com). Europe doesn't have multiple companies trying risky businesses and competing for the top talent. European values (focus on equality, stability, WLB, etc) are in part responsible for this.
That's true, however the strong employee protection laws are definitely a factor that keep investors looking for safer returns like real estate rather than putting their money in starting a risky business in Europe.
If you had 1 mm USD/EUR/GBP to start a tech business, would you rather put it in a country where employees have high salaries but almost no rights or benefits by law, or in a country with lower wages but where you have the added risk to your business by all employees have stronger rights and benefits so your star coder could always spontaneously take his parental leave or his month long vacation break whenever you need him the most because "that's his legal right".
It's sad but true. Employee protection rights are good, but they do discourage investments. The fact that US has almost no employee rights does encourage investing in labour there.
14% of people in UK are skipping meals because they can’t afford food right now.
https://theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/18/one-in-7-briton...