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It's fairly cold comfort to know that your employer is paying some taxes associated with your position that don't come out of your notional pre-tax salary.

What most people are interested in is how much of their pay is take-home pay. In the US, the take-home fraction of your pay will typically be somewhat higher. It's certainly not the case that software engineers in the US are getting bigger notional salaries but then paying a larger fraction in paycheck deductions than their European counterparts.