[Barrin92]

One factor for a minority of jobs is extreme profitability of large American companies, (FAANG mostly), but the bigger portion is that they need to pay that much.

Friends I know in the US who make about 40k more than I do actually don't come out ahead because they pay thousands for private schooling (for a school on par with public education over here), daycare, two cars, high rent and so on.

When I stayed in the US I paid 3.5k in rent for a one bedroom apartment, in a trendy part of Berlin you pay half that. Cost of living in the US where the popular jobs are is high. People seem to be unable to save a lot even if they earn 100k+ salaries. In many other countries social security, education, loans, healthcare etc is simply priced in publicly.