111–120 of 129 posts
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When you consider that in the UK NI is 11/12% and that covers the NHS and your state pension plus SERPS (second state pension) and unemployment benefits. I knew a guy who emigrated to the USA and was working for CITI and was paying a bigger % of his pay just for his health cover.
You do know employer and employee both pay NI, so total NI is around 24%
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Germany has plenty of unions and Mercedes, BMW, Audi seem to be doing well enough You have two sides, with U.S. on one side where workers just work, with little thought for quality of life, and the other side is Europe, where they get paid a bit less, but they have 4 weeks vacation and much less demanding work load. I dunno about you, but I'd gladly sacrifice $10K(which is pretty much the whole difference between the…
You can quit and take time between jobs. $10K should let you backpack around Europe for about 3-6 months, which is more of a perk than Europeans get. I'm not quite sure why more people don't do this. Bank a bunch of money at a nice professional job, then quit and be funemployed for 6-12 months while they do lots of cool, life-affirming things. A bunch of my friends have done it - either backpacking around the U.S, or…
- Germany: 1 month in first 2 years, 2 months for years 5 to 8, ..., 7 months from year 20 on.
- Switzerland: 1 month first year, 2 months for years 2 - 9, 3 months from year 10.
And (at least in Switzerland) a dismissal notice is void if you're on vacation and were not able to receive the registered letter.
I live in Germany, and I know many engineers who work for one of the big carmakers (either directly or through some external company). Most of them are under some form of collective bargaining agreement. They have a lot of nice perks, like paid overtime (in the form of days of) and pretty good salaries. Meanwhile I work as a developer for an internet company. I've never heard of anybody working under a CBA, or any ki…
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You can quit and take time between jobs. $10K should let you backpack around Europe for about 3-6 months, which is more of a perk than Europeans get. I'm not quite sure why more people don't do this. Bank a bunch of money at a nice professional job, then quit and be funemployed for 6-12 months while they do lots of cool, life-affirming things. A bunch of my friends have done it - either backpacking around the U.S, or…
I'm not quite sure why more people don't do this It's currently pretty hard to get a job again on the other side of the vacation. Plus for most people in the USA wages are so low it's hard to even save $10K. 48% of the population are living on or below the poverty line.
According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate was 15.1% in 2010.
Source: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2010/...
Has it somehow managed to more than triple in the last year?
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No, I pay my mortgage. (Or I would, if I were stupid enough to buy real estate in this part of the country.) If my physical and mental health are trashed from overwork, I can't pay my mortgage, because I can't work for anybody . Me and my family first. Company second or lower. Always. The company is replaceable, my life and health are not.
Sorry I misread your original post as "why should I be concerned about an abstract concept's wellbeing." Yes of course you and your family come first. But you still have to care about the health of the place that gives you money.
PS: I live well below my market rate and toss the extra into savings. Living pay check to paycheck when your location or skills make it hard to find a new job is simply poor planing.
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For a few months that's possible, but at 12 months it starts getting tricky if you ever want a job again. May be less of a problem in tech, but in a lot of areas if you're "long-term unemployed", HR just screens out your resume; companies seem to only want to hire employed or recently-employed people (cf. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/ct-biz-0905-wor... ).
The obvious idealistic response being.. would you want to work somewhere that showed such shallow thinking?
Yes.
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How are wages in europe for engineers and developers? I look at wages in Europe compared to the USA, and even though we work a lot more, developers do get paid far more too, especially when you compare on a cost of living and taxation basis.
If you bring it down to numbers, the pay is definitely higher in the US. For instance, an average software engineer out of school can expect a starting salary between 25 and 35k euros on average in France. In SF, it's more $70-90k at the very least. But then you have to account for the higher cost of living, transportation (even if you don't drive, French employers pay for a part of your public transportation tickets…
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For a few months that's possible, but at 12 months it starts getting tricky if you ever want a job again. May be less of a problem in tech, but in a lot of areas if you're "long-term unemployed", HR just screens out your resume; companies seem to only want to hire employed or recently-employed people (cf. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/ct-biz-0905-wor... ).
Start a blog about your experiences and then call yourself a self-employed travel blogger. Might even make a little AdSense cash off of it too. There are all sorts of creative ways to get around HR.
Hate the game, not those who must survive within it.
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You have it backwards - the cost of living is considerably higher in France than in the US. What costs $1 in the US costs $1.20 in France [1]. ...better public education... Um, no. Better students, but a considerably worse public education system. http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazing-truth-abou... The cheese, however, is considerably better in France, as are the women (fatties over here drag our average…
Providing facts does not excuse acting like a jackass.
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I'm not quite sure why more people don't do this It's currently pretty hard to get a job again on the other side of the vacation. Plus for most people in the USA wages are so low it's hard to even save $10K. 48% of the population are living on or below the poverty line.
Your poverty statistics are wrong. According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate was 15.1% in 2010. Source: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2010/... Has it somehow managed to more than triple in the last year?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/12/census-says-...