[giantg2]

There are areas of Europe that have good salaries. I think Switzerland is one. It's also hard to compare salaries due to how taxes and benefits work.

For example (hypothetical), you could be spending few thousand per month to give your family healthcare in the US. This could take the median US dev salary from about $105k down to about $75-85k, or even lower depending on a bunch of factors. Then we would have to compare cost of living in both countries, including if healthcare is covered in an indirect manner in the other country.

[admissionsguy]

Cost of living tends to be lower in most of the US relative to Western Europe. Not to mention VAT.

There is some truth in what you are saying. Possibly contracting in the EU is more similar to employment in the US (compared to employment in the EU where you don’t need need to constantly produce value).

But even taking all that into account, the US is just wealthier than even the „rich” EU countries.