money is one thing, you also need to take into consideration how much work US tech expects, how little vacation is provided, and how things like Health Care isn't universal.
The only people who say this are those who don't work at the major tech companies. I worked at Google and Microsoft and know plenty of people who work at Facebook, AirBnb, Uber. Neither myself or anyone I know is overworked, or is unable to take plenty of time off for vacation, or doesn't have access to absolutely amazing health care plans.
That's a very broad brush statement. Many US tech companies have pretty reasonable work/life balance, less vacation than is typical in Europe but still in the 3-4 week range, and you'd probably be hard pressed to find a large or even not-so-large employer that didn't offer healthcare (albeit you may have to pay half the premiums or so).
I have worked at many companies in the US where my take home pay was $140,000 + bonus. I got 4-6 weeks of PTO every year, the company paid for my high deductible insurance plane and kicked in an additional $1000 to an HSA. This doesn't include the dollar for dollar safe harbor match on my 401k that was up to $8,000 and more after that at a reduced rate. There as no stock or anything like that. I worked on average 40/hr a week and we played a lot of golf.
Is this the norm definitely not but there are a lot of good companies out there paying well.
Point me to a US company paying 150k that doesn’t cover your health care. The majority of companies also have very generous vacation (unlimited in a lot of cases).
You have to account for out of pocket maximums, which are up to $17k per year for a family, and increase every year, plus the risk of losing your ability to earn income, especially in your 50+ years.
Currently, a family of 4 would spend $35k plus or minus $5k on premiums, plus the $34k you need on hand for out of pocket expenses because it’s per calendar year, so if something happens at the end of the year, you need to be able to pay for 2 years worth of out of pocket expenses.
And that is today, so account for quite a bit of inflation if you are starting a family in your 30s, you need to be able to providing until 55 to 60, when the kids should be able to provide for themselves (at your expected quality of life).
Plus education prices, and insuring yourself from legal expenses. I know, 90% of Americans are not and will never be insured against these risks, but once you are in the $200k to $400k income range, you can actually achieve it and come to expect it.
It's not Goldman Sachs we're talking about here.