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by AlexAmee 3059 days ago
Yea totally !

But I had a very interesting situation once. I asked one of my clients if it's ok for him, if I move to Croatia for some time, he tried to convince me that it's his right to pay less since I don't need as much as in Austria.

So I assume that he basically thought: "you don't need that money since everything else is cheaper and you earn more than the average person in Croatia"

I mean if you think about it, the average salary in Romania is like 450 Euro's ? Now imagine a dev living in Romania with 4k Euro's each month, working for a company in Germany.

I'm not saying that they are right, all I'm saying is that I understand their thinking process ( even if it's totally BS )

They next issues: probably taxes, there is a reason why we got hourly rates like 90/hour, our taxes are killer, if you have good rates, you can be sure that you will lose 50% on taxes, while in other countries it's not like that.

Compared to Romania ( low flat rate 16% tax ), this is insane[0].

Long story short, they try to figure out the cost of living and based on that, that's what you get.

[0] https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/taxes/income-taxe...

1 comments

Low tax rate in developing countries gives you non-existing public services and infrastructure in shambles. Compensating these two can after all costs you more than in countries with higher salaries, especially in emergency situations. Just look up how healthcare in Romania looks like. Croatia, except having brilliant landscapes, is no paradise to live in either when it comes to serious things.
Sure in emergency situations and that's a bad thing no doubt about that but that's not the general assumption.