[sumedh]

18k$ a year which means you are not working in the US or some other developed country so I am not sure what is the point of that comparison.

[cm2012]

You know the median American makes $30k per year? Bottom 25% of Americans make under $18k per year.

These numbers are pretty similar in NYC as compared to the country as a whole, too.

[sumedh]

Shouldn't you be looking at the median for software devs?

[throw03172019]

The $18k salary was never specified to be an engineer salary. There are a wide range of users on this site.

[bogdanu]

Eastern Europe (EU). Yes, the cost of living is a lot higher in the US, but it's not 20×. Even if we compare it to any western euro country, we'll see that none of them have wages even close to US.

[sumedh]

> we'll see that none of them have wages even close to US.

You are comparing apples to oranges here, how many European companies are as profitable as FAANG companies, when a company has more money and shortage of skilled people, salaries will rise to attract the best.

There are other factors like US workers work more and have other expenses since there is no welfare state while Europeans work less and also have a welfare state.