Or rather why Europe pays so bad.
I wonder whats the reason behind many american companies being able to pay 200-400kusd a year while its hard to get past 100k usd in the richer countries of Europe (Germany, Scandinavia, UK, etc.). A junior in USA gets more than a senior in Europe. And after 10 years the american may get 2-4x the salary of the european counterpart. In contrast life in USA is often even cheaper.
- Are european companies greedy?
- Are european companies less competitive?
- Are the high taxes and equality in Europe pushing companies to not try harder to reward talent while USA rewards the high performers as they can see the benefits it brings?
Isn’t the question rather “why do US companies do that” when they could get away with paying less?
I can only speak for myself but I’m not keen on constantly job-hunting like I see so many US engineer advise. I’m looking for a more stable situation where the company seeks to hire long-term, and often in those cases you get benefits that are not monetary. Free access to partnered places like fitness studios or swimming pools can’t really be rolled into your salary, but if you use those often you end up with a financial benefit too. Automatical raises when your child is born is another.
Maybe it’s just a different culture, but I’ll trade in some base salary for a work environment based on mutual trust and goodwill.
I mean you don’t have to constantly job hunt but you have the option of doing so if you want to maximize money. And enough people doing so raises the compensation for everyone even if they don’t job hunt constantly.
Maybe there already lies another reason for the lower salaries - if you are from a country which traditionally had your company actually appreciate their employees and make them feel valued, and historically you just had to land your job and could expect to stay with the company the rest of your life, you will not be actively looking unless you get laid off. Loyalty on both sides is still quite common where I live.
Loyalty is all great until a depression comes or a bad decission causes layoffs. Then suddenly all the loyalty and being a family means nothing. I think back in the days when 5% raises were the norm and you could buy a house in 5 years on one income being loyal made sense. Now since companies do not keep up with inflation and the standards of living are so high I believe its in your best interest to do whatever its needed to get a better job. If staying in the same company gives you that its great but most often than not changing jobs often and testing the market will do you better imho.
Yes, any day of the week. OP is either trolling (which I heavily lean toward at this point), has an incredibly narrow world view, or is an edgy 16-year-old who identifies as libertarian.
I mean as someone who has experienced both the US and Europe I would say this applies to most everyone posting here.
And if we’re going to sling insults then I’ll say it’s hilariously amusing how clearly fragile the egos of the people posting here are.
I’ll admit I got annoyed that OP seemed to almost deliberately misunderstand or discount other perspectives or answers. It makes their pretty open question seem disingenuous. I assume people ask questions because they’re interested in other people’s perspectives on a topic, rather than just wanting to hear that they are right?
Possibly OP just failed to communicate why they feel as they feel with regards to the relative value of welfare systems, taxes, and salary (they clarified somewhat later in another thread), but it’s frustrating to see other people’s well thought-out answers being discounted or strawmanned without actually being refuted. That rings my troll warning bell, or imo is a sign of someone who can only see the world through one particular lens.
I didnt expect so many replies and its hard to keep with comments so sometimes I may have skimmed some replies too fast (like your comment on taxes for companies ;)). Im also on phone.
People have also started talking about welfare and taxation which is irrelevant to the question which was why US companies pay more (pre-tax). I think this dereiled and I wanted to edit the post to l clarify but my mobile client doesnt have edit post functionality yet. I have to admit I got a bit annoyed because that had nothing to do with my question and turned into a us vs europe welfare/benefits which has nothing to do with pre-tax salaries. When broght that even in Europe with the same welfare and benefits US companies pay mroe people still kept talking about welfare. Its a bit annoying to be fair