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Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

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Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#11

Post by sneak »

geoduck14 wrote: post #4
city41 wrote: post #2

Site seems down, possibly HN hug of death

Same here. I'll have to guess at an insightful comment. Here goes Sure Europeans get paid less - but they also get a bunch of great benefits like time off and government paid health care, so it works out Also, the average salary in America is skewed by FANMAG paying really high salaries In the end, I'm happy with my work and paid fairly. I deserve a 10% raise, but I'm not pressured to switch right now HN of the futur…

Americans make several multiples what europeans do in this market. Healthcare is expensive, but it's less than 20k/year. The salary differences are frequently >100k/year.

You can also negotiate PTO. Passive-aggressive "unlimited" (but not really) PTO is becoming a common bullet point in startup JDs now.

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#12

Post by londons_explore »

geoduck14 wrote: post #4
city41 wrote: post #2

Site seems down, possibly HN hug of death

Same here. I'll have to guess at an insightful comment. Here goes Sure Europeans get paid less - but they also get a bunch of great benefits like time off and government paid health care, so it works out Also, the average salary in America is skewed by FANMAG paying really high salaries In the end, I'm happy with my work and paid fairly. I deserve a 10% raise, but I'm not pressured to switch right now HN of the futur…

> government paid health care,

Most salary comparisons are done pre-taxes. Europe has much higher taxes, in part to pay for that free education and healthcare.

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#13

Post by pixelpoet »

geoduck14 wrote: post #4
city41 wrote: post #2

Site seems down, possibly HN hug of death

Same here. I'll have to guess at an insightful comment. Here goes Sure Europeans get paid less - but they also get a bunch of great benefits like time off and government paid health care, so it works out Also, the average salary in America is skewed by FANMAG paying really high salaries In the end, I'm happy with my work and paid fairly. I deserve a 10% raise, but I'm not pressured to switch right now HN of the futur…

Two other things: tax is way higher in (western) Europe, and I would guess (site still down) the pay disparity will be something like 2x.

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#14

Post by volent »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

Without reading the article (site is down) my expectation is that the data will show significantly lower salaries in Europe than in the USA. One of the explanations is that there are almost no genuine software development companies in Europe. Software jobs there are mostly internal (enterprise) software development or customization, and not software product or service development. Being a cost centre instead of a pro…

This is just not true.

There are plenty of product companies in Europe. To give just a few examples: Spotify, Deliveroo, Blablacar, BackMarket

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#16

Post by TrueGeek »

geoduck14 wrote: post #4
city41 wrote: post #2

Site seems down, possibly HN hug of death

Same here. I'll have to guess at an insightful comment. Here goes Sure Europeans get paid less - but they also get a bunch of great benefits like time off and government paid health care, so it works out Also, the average salary in America is skewed by FANMAG paying really high salaries In the end, I'm happy with my work and paid fairly. I deserve a 10% raise, but I'm not pressured to switch right now HN of the futur…

> I'm happy with my work and paid fairly

But are you American or European? :)

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#17

Post by PragmaticPulp »

It’s funny to see this site gather so many upvotes while the server is down. I think by now everyone knows very well that software engineering salaries are higher in the United States.

If the shift toward remote work really comes to fruition, I fully expect EU software salaries to rise. I’ve hired a lot of excellent remote developers in European countries. The trick is to pay them American-level wages, which are often substantially higher than what they could get locally. When you’re paying that much, you basically have the pick of the best developers you can find. Not only that, but they’re extremely grateful for the opportunity.

The obvious downside is the time zone difference, so this only really works once you’re large enough to have a whole remote team and someone able to manage them in their time zone.

This is also why I don’t believe the rise of remote work (if it actually happens) will be as good for US workers in major cities as they want to believe. There is a lot of underpaid, highly qualified talent on the international remote market.

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#19

Post by EugeneOZ »

volta83 wrote: post #8
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

Without reading the article (site is down) my expectation is that the data will show significantly lower salaries in Europe than in the USA. One of the explanations is that there are almost no genuine software development companies in Europe. Software jobs there are mostly internal (enterprise) software development or customization, and not software product or service development. Being a cost centre instead of a pro…

> In Europe, you go, where? Same place? All of FAANG and beyond has offices in Europe.

with lower salaries, and they are trying to justify it by the “lower cost of living”, which is not actually lower. The only the exception is Switzerland - FAANG salaries here aren't lower, because this country has so legendary cost of living ;)

Re: Software Engineering Salaries in Europe vs. the United States

#20

Post by burntoutfire »

volta83 wrote: post #8
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

Without reading the article (site is down) my expectation is that the data will show significantly lower salaries in Europe than in the USA. One of the explanations is that there are almost no genuine software development companies in Europe. Software jobs there are mostly internal (enterprise) software development or customization, and not software product or service development. Being a cost centre instead of a pro…

> In Europe, you go, where? Same place? All of FAANG and beyond has offices in Europe.

I'm guessing the size of their presence in Europe in total is way way smaller than in SV alone (not to mention entire US).
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