[Slartie]

> If you were a top developer, would you like to make 80k€ at a German software company, paying 33% income tax, or 160k$ at a US company paying 9.3%.

Well, that depends. If I have to put more than half of that 160k$ (which is obviously a Silicon Valley example) into the measly place that I live in because rents and house prices are through the roof (like in...Silicon Valley!), the seemingly high salary can easily become very misleading.

> Of course things are changing, but German developers will have to learn to ask for more.

That is true, but I can also see this happening right now due to the relative shortage of personnel. It just takes a while, because the management people can't easily justify sudden salary raises in the upper double-digit percentage area. People need time to build a higher general level of salaries in the area, but it is definitely something that's going on right now.

[argonaut]

Silicon Valley is not even close to that expensive.

A 2 bedroom apartment in Pacific Heights, San Francisco's most expensive neighborhood, can be had for 6k in rent per month, which is $72k per year, which is still less than 80k.