Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

visa.lafrenchtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

701–710 of 751 posts

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#701

Post by hk__2 »

user5994461 wrote: post #602
NamTaf wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French employees aren't paid on their standard holidays? It also seems strange that if you're working over the 35/hr week baseline and being compensated for it by extra leave, that you would not be paid during that leave. After all, you're working extra for that time off, so you've essentially just already worked those weeks in advance.

In accounting terms, your pay is calculated as hourly rate * time working. It's averaged over the year and paid monthly. All the holidays are time not working over the year. So, yes, it is definitely lowering your pay.

That’s not true. Holidays are paid in France, that’s the point of holidays. You can take unpaid holidays if you need more time, though.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#702

Post by on_and_off »

jlangenauer wrote: post #5

Apropos of this, I was in Paris recently at a startup event, and was pleasantly shocked at the sheer number of startups and people I saw doing things. This is a good move by the French, and will help attract entrepreneurs away from other countries (particularly like those just across the channel currently inflicting generational economic damage on themselves.)

Interesting. I live there and frequently joke about the 'frenchtech' with colleagues. Sadly, in our experience, french companies are very slow to adopt new technologies.

There are of course some exceptions, but right now I plan to try to move to the USA.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#703

Post by Hasknewbie »

noplay wrote: post #345
frwo wrote: post #172

French salaries are much lower and taxes are extremely high for high income earners. There's more than one tax on your income! There's the regular "impôt" but also the "contribution solidarité" which is legally considered "not a tax" but cost you a percentage of your income. And a "taxe d'habitation" too (which is proportional to your rent rather than income). There's quite a bit of misrepresentation and wordplay all…

And in the US you have federal and state taxes. For a family with child you will probably pay less taxes in France than in San Francisco. Bonus point: all your taxes are prefilled by governement you just need to confirm on the website.

> Bonus point: all your taxes are prefilled by governement you just need to confirm on the website.

A very odd thing to say, since in most of (Northern, at least) Europe salaries are paid tax-deducted. When I was in the UK my salary was my net income, nothing to declare or confirm. And it's been like that since the 60s.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#704

Post by romanovcode »

morgante wrote: post #663
benevol wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With an American tech salary of $200k/yr Well, that means you're part of the "1%". In that case, you obviously don't have (m)any real problems. So, if you're thinking for the "1%", then your logic holds up. If on the other hand you believe to be part of the "1%" soon, then this quote may be of interest to you: “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but…

$200k is closer to 4-5%, not 1%. More importantly, I'm not making some grand proclamation on morality of French governance vs American governances. I'm just affirming that as a developer, you are much better off in the US (particularly NYC/SV) where such salaries are fairly achievable and common.

Top 5% most paid developers in Europe are just fine, trust me.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#705

Post by Chris2048 »

throwaway1892 wrote: post #480
Chris2048 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, same as the company I worked for. Market rate is hard to discover, but harder still if you have an entity working against you - the company I worked for had a binding contract with any client preventing them from revealing how much they paid for temps. Do you have a period of time you are contracted to work? If you can make friends in the Paris dev community, you might be able to find out how good/bad your pay i…

From what my former classmates told me, for profiles that are roughly equivalent, it looks like to be closer to 40k. But then they are not in consulting companies. And I'm too much of a lazy ass to look for another job. Also I have few reason right now to seek a higher salary.

If one of those reasons is "I'm still learning", note that agency jobs can often be exactly the same as non-agency jobs, except with a middle-man sapping away a portion of salary.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#706

Post by muse900 »

romanovcode wrote: post #704
morgante wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is closer to 4-5%, not 1%. More importantly, I'm not making some grand proclamation on morality of French governance vs American governances. I'm just affirming that as a developer, you are much better off in the US (particularly NYC/SV) where such salaries are fairly achievable and common.

Top 5% most paid developers in Europe are just fine, trust me.

Not really unless you are living in Switzerland which is no part of EU.

I got a friend and atm he works in a top bank at the highest position a dev can acquire. He makes £120k a year without his bonuses etc. Thing is he is living in London and houses are so expensive in London and generally the cost of life and the taxes are drilling him. Am not gonna say he is not comfortable, he definitely is alright, although he has been trying to get transferred to Singapore or USA because after his research he found out he would be 2 times better off working there.

So yes I think devs working outside of the EU are doing better for themselves.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#707

Post by paulprins »

blusterXY wrote: post #681
paulprins wrote: post #472

I'm a tech founder who is in Paris through a very similar program with Paris & Co, French Tech. If you have questions I'll loop back around to answer them based on my experience. Note: I didn't come with the French Tech Ticket (which was a different program that was more structured). I have an existing software company which I am expanding to France & Europe.

Applied to the program with my last company. There was no response and no interview other than a rejection email. The business is now running millions in orders and several hundred thousands a year in revenue. I had wanted to go and thought the company was a shoo-in since it was 100% bootstrapped and profitable at the time of application. Also growing like a weed. So I have no idea what they are doing, but they don't…

Props on growing your business. Mine is also bootstrapped and doing well. Sorry that was your experience. They so seem to have particular types of businesses they are more interested in (though I don't know what that criteria is).

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#708

Post by Dr0Dre »

scrollaway wrote: post #219
woodhull wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France tries to regulate what people wear while sitting on the beach. It seems downright opposed to multiculturalism and diversity. Freedom of expression isn't just the right to write blog posts.

I sure do see a lot of people here who have zero actual experience of France, ready to pass judgement based on whatever clickbait they happened to read a few years back, after it's gone through a couple of translation layers. Speaking as somebody who's lived in France, Greece, the UK, the US and Sweden: France is by far the most "multiculturalism-friendly" place of all these. Yes, even more than Sweden. Like most Fre…

I beg to differ. My experience was really the opposite.

I come from the maghreb region and lived in France for a while. I experienced racism at work and outside of it.

If you are arab looking or black, you better emmigrate to another country like UK/US or even germany for a better chance. If you don't you are doomed.

For those who don't understand what I'm talking about check a movie called "La Haine".

And I agree with you, it might be different in other cities.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#709

Post by Chris2048 »

Chris2048 wrote: post #286
pyrale wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've actually had this welfare for 70 years, and the harm was supposed to come any minute now for all this time. Ultimately, its demise is likely going to come from the propaganda against it rather from it actually being a problem.

Who says you haven't seen harm? You're erecting a straw-man. Also, you have to factor in that when the coffers are empty, France may be more willing to sell weapons abroad... So maybe it's not France that sees that harm. http://www.france24.com/en/20150503-arms-sales-becoming-fran...

Ok, is there some French Defamation League, downvote-brigade choosing to censor realities it dislikes, rather than respond?

I note I have down-voted responses to replies that do not have further responses. Hence, from my point of view, it seems when the argument got difficult, down-voting was resorted to..

note: this comment was also down-voted within 5 minutes, again without comment. Those who never comment, never run the risk of malicious down-votes.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#710

Post by kahnpro »

morgante wrote: post #588
renaudg wrote: post #425

Regarding French salaries again : yes they are lower than elsewhere but with some exceptions, French employers are not the problem : they do pay the same price for you as in other European countries, more or less ! The difference is that your average engineer in France costs them around 1.5-2.5 times the total take home pay, because of high, compulsory labor taxes. In exchange, employees get as standard : * a top not…

I love how people trot out universal healthcare or pensions as a reason to ignore that European salaries are so much lower. With an American tech salary of $200k/yr, I can pay for all of that (health insurance, student loans, etc.) and still sock away $100k/yr in savings. That $100k is more than enough to build up a massive nest egg which will provide for me better than any pension or unemployment insurance would. If…

You are dramatically overpaid. Full stop.

Most people, even most developers, are not comparing such a high salary against Europe because most of us don't have a salary like yours.

Post reply on HN