[dougmwne]

I’ll assume you are talking about the average, which is a bit above $100k. You have probably seen plenty of eye-popping FAANG salaries, but those are basically outliers from monopoly companies in a top talent Cold War.

There are some currency effects due to status of the USD as one of the most stable shelters of risk. But I don’t believe this is accounts for most of the difference.

Mainly, the US does not have a high enough supply of tech workers. Other professions are not particularly well paid in comparison to the cost of living. But for tech, the size of the US tech industry combined with a restrictive immigration policy means that companies will pay a lot for most technical talent. Companies try to hire abroad as much as they can, but there are enough disadvantages to outsourcing that there will always be reasons to hire within the US.

The tech industry fights against this high pay by encouraging more people to study IT degrees, lobbying for immigration reform, and even in the past by anti-poaching agreements that amounted to price fixing.