Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are mistaken, because you do not take into account the whole contributions that are deducted between gross and super-gross. Medical care is just one of them and it adds up to WAY more than 8%. Here is a break down of what that would look like for a French employee: (1) Starting with a super gross of 130k EUR / year ($145k): - Deduct retirement contribution - Deduct health care contribution - Deduct family contrib…
The same thing is true of the United States as well. The $150k salary is going to be after: 1) Retirement contribution 2) Medicare/health insurance contribution 3) Unemployment insurance contribution At the $150k salary level, the following will also be provided as benefits before the $150k: 4) Short and long term disability insurance 5) Family leave A gross salary of $150k is going to be more like $175k including th…
So, I checked and indeed there is a small fraction of gross/super-gross difference in US salaries. But that should just be 6% total medical/medicare. Far from the 45% you often find in Europe.
> if you max out your 401k contribution
I don't think accounting for employee/employer triggered retirement contributions should enter the comparison here... Because it exists in pretty much every country, and it depends on what the employee wants to spend.
> If you do that, your retirement benefits will be much more than you would receive in France.
France has exactly the same as US 401k, since 1970, it's called a PEE. It's tax free and company contribution can go up to 3:1, it's limited to 25% of your total income though. There's also the more recent PERCO which is pretty much the same thing but can be cumulated, so you can go over 25% if you want.