They seem much lower than, say, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, etc. Eastern and southern Europe are low but also lower cost of living. A fraction of the US regardless.
Yeah but there's lots and lots of no big tech US companies in Ireland. They generally don't have much equity or bonuses but the base is OK. I got 6 figures from a bunch of them in Ireland so it's possible.
Feck all, unfortunately. Like, if you either 1. buy a house some years back or 2. get an off-books rental through someone you know then you can do well.
Alternatively, if you work for one of the Big Tech places then you'll get a really good wage (by irish standards) as well as enough benefits to make you feel a bunch better off. Additionally the bonuses and equity there help a lot.
But yeah, Ireland's super expensive. Our household is at about the 85% percentile income, and we have a (small/expensive) house but we don't have a lot left after all of our outgoings.
So yeah, you can get a better salary but you probably won't have a whole lot more disposable income (but apart from all that, ireland's a great place to live).
Yeah, we tried to hack this by buying a cheap place in Offaly near the train and working remote, and it was kinda-sorta OK except that our neighbours were hell on Earth. Gave up and moved to the Netherlands which has been great for our kids' independence.
Aren't Netherlands wages lower than Germany except for US big-tech and HFT?
I got a 70k offer with 10 YoE last week from a recruiter to move to NL and it felt like a ripoff. So I don't know where these fancy NL wages are outside the top 1%.