| > I'm curious what tech salaries are like in bonafide EU tech standouts like Spotify. Usual mid-high end of Swedish tech salaries in Sweden. Not sure about the USA. > But a big part of the issue is that companies simply couldn't afford to double their salaries because they aren't as profitable as US tech giants I don't understand why there's always a comparison to US's salaries, the US is the outlier in every discussion about labour and salaries, almost nowhere else in the world (maybe except for Switzerland and similar countries) pays such high salaries, the rest of the world won't pay as much as the USA, it's a fact, I'd prefer to stop comparing everywhere else to that outlier, it won't be the rule. It's the top benchmark and it has a huge cost in terms of quality of life for a chunk of the population, the USA is a business-first, citizenry-after kind of society, I don't feel it's a way of being that other countries should emulate. At least after living there for a while I never really felt that it was so rich, it has loads of rich people with shiny toys but society in general feels poor: infrastructure sucks (passing by any airport in the USA is a trip back to the 80s/90s), stuck with the car-centric mentality from the 50s, a very palpable huge divide between rich and poor, etc. The USA has amazing businesses, and makes a lot of money, but I don't think it trickles down into society; given how rich the country is in nominal terms I'm always surprised whenever I pass by and realise that wealth is not translated into a better general quality of life for most citizens, it's just that people can afford to buy more trinkets... |
The reason I brought it up is because the most profitable, dynamic tech companies are founded and based in the US (often by immigrants). Other countries will lose their edge to be able compete in tech globally if they don't compete in engineer pay.