Healthcare and vacations in the US are often reasonable for the developed world if you are, e.g., a highly-paid tech worker or other elite worker or, in some jurisdictions, a public sector worker (especially one with many years in, for vacations)
For the other, oh, 80% of the US working population, though, that's not true.
To put it into perspective, in Germany you might make 4k/month as a highly educated, highly skilled worker with years of experience. Even if you work remote (most don't) you won't be able to find a decent small house even in the middle of nowhere below 500k.
I recently visited the US and haven't been happier to be a EU citizen in a long time, tbh.
That's insanely high post-tax salary for Germany. Most aren't making that before-tax. You're an exceptionably rare circumstance that's far from the norm.
As a freelancer, you make around 800-1000$ a day working for bigger German companies, and the bar to become one is not very high from my experience on both sides of the table. For internal employees the ceiling is at around 120k for senior engineers, above that you need to go into middle management territory or be an EM equivalent.
Going by levels FYI, this would put you in the 95th percentile, the equivalent in NYC would be $400,000. Which is nuts combined with your 20k/yr living expenses. When did you get your apartment, 2009?
I budget for ⅓ off the top, living in NYC (this is an overestimate, but common practice) for a post-tax income of $100k. High income geographies are correlated with high tax rates in the U.S., too.
Anyways, all this to say that U.S. post-tax-post-benefits income is not wildly different from the E.U. Maybe the main difference is that you can work as a freelancer, expense everything, and effectively opt-out of health insurance, and take home more salary.
But if you're salaried and in tech in the top quartile of the labor market, post-tax savings is pretty much the same in western EU vs U.S. There's no 10x difference in wages, (excluding equity performance, which is not a tax/benefits policy issue).
In general, E.U. citizens I know who have come to the U.S. do it because the businesses here are more interesting and have more upside (i.e. the aforementioned equity upside component). If they're making bigger heaps of money, it's because of startup equity comp, not because of tax or benefits policies.
> But if you're salaried and in tech in the top quartile of the labor market, post-tax savings is pretty much the same in western EU vs U.S. There's no 10x difference in wages, (excluding equity performance, which is not a tax/benefits policy issue).
As someone who's worked in top companies in Germany and the US, I feel confident enough to weigh in on this. Top earners might make 200k TC in Berlin, but engineers at this caliber will earn 500k+ in NYC. And no, rent and tipping in restaurants does not take up that 300k difference.
> If they're making bigger heaps of money, it's because of startup equity comp, not because of tax or benefits policies.
They're making more money because American companies pay more money, because they make more money, they have access to more capital, they hire in a more competitive market.
- 350k is like 200k net in CA
- 200k is ~110k net in Germany
- ~90k post-tax difference
- Germany: 25 days PTO min
- Meta: 25-30 days PTO min
- Google: 20 days PTO min
Considering COL differences, you'd probably save 40-50k more in the US than Germany with these numbers. Maybe it's not significant enough to lose the EU lifestyle bonuses but it's also not nothing.
He said he made 80k Euros ($84.5k) and save 60k euros from that. Where do you get 140k+?