[mruts]

Maybe, but America has relatively low taxes and high income.

This is an anecdote, but I was looking at developer jobs in Europe and the salaries are pathetic. 65k Euros for a senior engineer with a 50% tax rate? Are you fucking kidding me? I can make 250k in the US at a 35% rate. It’s absurd.

No wonder Europe has a brain drain problem...

[photonios]

Do keep in mind that Europe is not a single country. Within the European Union, salaries and tax rates vary greatly. For western Europe, that seems a bit low.

Besides the northern countries, the tax rate is not 50%. Most countries either have a flat rate that is well below that or have a system where you pay in boxes. Like %30 over the first 20k, then %47 over the remainder etc. On top of that, many countries have countless schemes that result in tax deductions. Like owning a house gets you a discount.

In almost all cases, the effective tax rate falls well below 50%.

[zepearl]

Developers earn 250k USD/year in the US?

Any reference to the european "brain dead"-problem?

[freeone3000]

Yes.

https://voxeu.org/article/european-brain-drain is fairly comprehensive, but the idea is that highly skilled people generally go where they're paid the most for their skills.

[kensai]

This is an 11-year old article and honestly total bullshit. European developers and professionals in general are quite happy with the welfare in Europe. It's a completely different mindset. Yes we earn much less, but at least if we can sick or fired we know we can get some decent support from the state.

[mruts]

Not all of them, but engineering jobs with total comp >250k USD are not difficult to find at all.

[pm90]

> european "brain dead"

I'm guessing you mean brain drain. Or is there a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic that I missed? : )

[zepearl]

haha, thx, soooorry, I misread... :))

[joncrane]

Absolutely. Many in Silicon Valley make much, much more as Individual Contributors.