[p1esk]

This summer I worked at a startup in Luxembourg. I overheard a job interview my boss conducted, where an Australian with a PhD in machine learning asked for EUR60k as a salary. My boss decided to offer him EUR50k.

Costs of living in Luxembourg are about the same as in Santa Barbara (where I currently live).

I think median salaries in Luxembourg might be skewed by the presence of a large financial market (it's kind of a Wall St of Europe).

[lsc]

My impression is that it's the other way around; working in the computer industry carries a higher pay premium (vs. working in some other field) in Silicon Valley than it does anywhere else. So while a chef might be better off in Luxembourg, the software engineer is better off in silicon valley.

[p1esk]

You might be right, but 50k is way too low for a software engineer anywhere in US.

[hiram112]

What are you talking about?

The prevailing wage law of the H1B is only $60k, and these are for the best and brightest workers our mega corps need, due to a lack of qualified US workers.

So obviously, $50k is more than adequate. /s