The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
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The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
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Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#2[2021]
Previous discussion
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#3Unfortunately this misses the difference in taxation vs. the US. You pay almost nothing for healthcare at any tech company and pay much lower taxes (both income and sales tax). So European offers are still much less competitive than the US.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#4Ok let me make a probably very unpopular comment here: their 3rd point lists "companies benchmarking against all regional or global companies" but in fact what they mean is "companies benchmarking against the highest paying US tech hubs".
I assure you "all regional or global companies" also include Vietnamese companies paying junior devs $300 per month - what is the advantage of the European engineer that is worth paying >=10x as much?
If you're comparing globally you can't cherry pick only the best paying regions because these are not your only competition. And there are a hell of a lot more Bangladeshi, Vietnamese & Nigerians than there are people living in SFBA or Seattle, and if you're truly competing globally you're also competing with them.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#5Unfortunately this misses the difference in taxation vs. the US. You pay almost nothing for healthcare at any tech company and pay much lower taxes (both income and sales tax). So European offers are still much less competitive than the US.
A common criticism is that “but you get so much more for your taxes in Europe”.
I have a counterpoint - you get the choice of what you want to buy in the US. I’d rather keep more of my take-home pay and do without certain services, or better yet choose the provider (and quality / expense) of such services if I want them.
Somehow the bureaucracy in the US is still massive, so I can only imagine what far higher tax rates in Europe enable.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#6Unfortunately this misses the difference in taxation vs. the US. You pay almost nothing for healthcare at any tech company and pay much lower taxes (both income and sales tax). So European offers are still much less competitive than the US.
A common criticism is that “but you get so much more for your taxes in Europe”. I have a counterpoint - you get the choice of what you want to buy in the US. I’d rather keep more of my take-home pay and do without certain services, or better yet choose the provider (and quality / expense) of such services if I want them. Somehow the bureaucracy in the US is still massive, so I can only imagine what far higher tax rat…
Tax rates at the higher taxed states in the US (like California) are actually not lower than in western europe while still not providing you with all the services western european governments do.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#7[deleted]
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
A common criticism is that “but you get so much more for your taxes in Europe”. I have a counterpoint - you get the choice of what you want to buy in the US. I’d rather keep more of my take-home pay and do without certain services, or better yet choose the provider (and quality / expense) of such services if I want them. Somehow the bureaucracy in the US is still massive, so I can only imagine what far higher tax rat…
Tax rates at the higher taxed states in the US (like California) are actually not lower than in western europe while still not providing you with all the services western european governments do.
I live in Massachusetts, and somehow we actually have fairly low taxation (5.25% flat tax) despite our reputation and being deep blue politically.
I average about 30% total taxation in a high tax bracket. If I was trying to avoid taxes on real wealth I would move to Florida for 6 months and do the other 6 in Boston (as have many friends of mine).
Why people keep paying California / NYC tax rates in software dev jobs makes no sense anymore.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#9Ok let me make a probably very unpopular comment here: their 3rd point lists "companies benchmarking against all regional or global companies" but in fact what they mean is "companies benchmarking against the highest paying US tech hubs". I assure you "all regional or global companies" also include Vietnamese companies paying junior devs $300 per month - what is the advantage of the European engineer that is worth pa…
> what is the advantage of the European engineer that is worth paying >=10x as much?
They produce better product.
Re: The trimodal nature of software salaries in the Netherlands and Europe (2021)
#10Ok let me make a probably very unpopular comment here: their 3rd point lists "companies benchmarking against all regional or global companies" but in fact what they mean is "companies benchmarking against the highest paying US tech hubs". I assure you "all regional or global companies" also include Vietnamese companies paying junior devs $300 per month - what is the advantage of the European engineer that is worth pa…
This isn't really directly true. A global company manager is not allowed to balance salary accounts and is usually given rules where US/Canada/western Europe are the same one head count and other countries are multiples according to typical comparative cost.
The end result is that many jobs don't get opened at all in Europe but the ones that do tend closer toward US rates as this is what they were planning to pay but could not find the one high cost head the manager wanted.