In France the situation is the same. Starting salaries go from 35k€ to 50k€ gross a year. No wonder a lot of students from college start as investment bankers or quant.
It is unfortunately not competitive with trading desks which ask for the same kind of skills. It is a vicious circle : software companies pay less, good programmers go to banks, software companies get bad programmers and so feel they don't have to pay well. It is a shame.