There are a lot of really low-ball offers, but there is also a shortage of talented applicants, so you can find some stuff around for €140K or €85-110 / hour.
You also don't need a car, work reasonable hours and get twice the vacation.
Actually though. This is awful. I loved Amsterdam, but I can't imagine why anyone would stay in Europe when even new grads can make >= 4x that in the US.
35k is low even for straight out of university. With a few years of experience it’s closer to 50-70k€ (57-80k$)
That said, when I was doing the math on moving to the states, a +80% increase in salary still left me with less money in NYC vs Amsterdam. (I have kids: healthcare + kids education + rent basically wipes out your income in the US, it doesn’t in Amsterdam)
Well one of the reasons (and it's a dumb one), is that getting a US work Visa is almost impossible for most, so they don't really have a choice, unfortunately.
That is not a regular salary in the Netherlands, they are just being cheap. My first job paid 40k, in a cheaper city, 10 years ago without a university degree.
Tax brackets are progressive, with 35k you pay about 20% income tax. Expats get a 30% income tax discount for 5 years.
While salaries are low, it does have some advantages to live here. Strong employee protection (you can't get fired for example), paid leave (minimum is 20 days + public holidays), you don't work more than 40h/week, cheap healthcare, good infrastructure and public transport, paid sick/disability, unemployment benefit, welfare, state pension, etc.
It is hard to compare employment salaries. I think it makes more sense to compare freelance wages as they don't have those benefits. Freelance engineers make about 80~100 euro/hour and get some tax discount.
You also don't need a car, work reasonable hours and get twice the vacation.