[shankr]

You can compare cost of living on numbeo. We are talking about tech workers here. Most of the tech employers offer quite generous benefit in USA including healthcare, generous parental leaves and vacations. Also 401K is so common among tech workers in US. Those kind of retirement scheme aren't very common in Europe. You are almost always dependent on the public pension which is generally quite low.

Almost everyone I have heard from who moved to US confirmed their bank balance got fatter. This is also true about people moving to Switzerland. Even with high costs in Switzerland, you make extra money and pay less taxes.

[lm28469]

Everything else gets more expensive though, real estate, going out, eating out, you need a car for everything, &c.

You gain some and lose some, personally I would never go back to the US even if I got a 3x salary increase. Having lived in both the lifestyle difference is a deal breaker for me. And Im not talking about buttfuck nowhere USA, I'm talking about NYC, SF and Mountain View