Ask HN: A US programmer makes 3 times that of a EU programmer. Why?

Post by simonsarris » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

shoto_io wrote: post #91

mmmmmbop wrote: post #21

It all comes down to U.S. tech companies being much more successful, mainly because of the scale of the U.S. market. Any U.S. startup can immediately address a market of $21T (GDP) without any regulatory overhead or language considerations. This causes engineers to be insanely productive in terms of economic productivity. In comparison, Germany, the largest country in the EU, has a GDP of only $3.8T. It's much harder…

I think you are right, it is because of the US tech companies being much more successful. BUT, I don't think it is because of the scale of the US market. As others have pointed out, Spotify from Sweden and many companies from Israel are also very successful. I believe the real underlying reason is the strong VC ecosystem, which was established decades earlier in the US has led to the success of the tech companies the…

Post by baybal2 » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

rizn wrote: post #85

baybal2 wrote: post #25

Proximity to Eastern Europe, with some Eastern European nations now being EU members.

Not sure where the stats come from, but €57k is not even that much in EE. Currently making slightly over €100k in Eastern EU state. Magic word "contracting".

Post by flatiron » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

ctenb wrote: post #79

flatiron wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 100% wfh in the US and it’s a double edged sword. I brought my daughter to the dentist yesterday at 2pm which would not have worked if I was at the office. But if I take a day and I have some calls I always get the “can you make those work on your day off?” guilt trips. I only get 15 days and probably 3-5 I get away with 0 work. Rest of them is 1-4 hours. Again it’s not terrible but it just makes it impossible to…

Are you actually living in the US or in EU and working for an EU company?

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #34

mmmmmbop wrote: post #21

It all comes down to U.S. tech companies being much more successful, mainly because of the scale of the U.S. market. Any U.S. startup can immediately address a market of $21T (GDP) without any regulatory overhead or language considerations. This causes engineers to be insanely productive in terms of economic productivity. In comparison, Germany, the largest country in the EU, has a GDP of only $3.8T. It's much harder…

They could compete with each other more aggressively for EU talent, essentially extending the US market for s/w engineers to the EU, but the problem is a huge swathe of the best EU s/w engineers already move to the US chasing those x3 wages. We're somewhat better off here in the UK, we have a well developed s/w industry in games, defence, embedded systems and finance. The difference is maybe only 2x instead of 3x. On…

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 2:39 PM UTC

wedn3sday wrote: post #61

I'm a software engineer that recently moved from California to Dublin, so here's my take on answering the questions (and not the dick measuring contest of US-vs-EU): * Making $1 in the US != making $1 in the EU: There are all sorts of things built into the society here that simply don't exist in the US (or Cali anyway). For example, in Cali I was absolutely required to own a car, which means paying registration and i…