Last year I was in Europe on a self-funded sabbatical. I was backpacking around the world for about 11 months.

I had a few interviews in Germany and The Netherlands that didn't work out, but one thing I did notice is that many European countries don't have the huge income wage gap for software engineers.

An engineer that might go for $150k in Chicago or Seattle would be about 50h ~ 55k euro in Berlin. It works it self out with lower costs for groceries, better public transportation, reasonable housing prices, etc.

The loss of salary you mention might seem bad for you, but it's part of having generally lower income inequality. The wage gaps in America (a lot of it brought on by the high demand and cost of housing and our poor transportation networks) are not good for people without tech jobs in cities that are dominated by them.

> An engineer that might go for $150k in Chicago or Seattle would be about 50h ~ 55k euro in Berlin.

Given the current exchange rate, that's a shocking gap between the US and Europe. People will happily sit in some traffic to make 3x as much.

You can live in the very core of berlin for around EU1500/mo, and much cheaper in places only a few blocks away from the subway that will get you to work in 1/4 the time. Food costs are about 50% less than in the US, for better quality. You can travel to any other city and other countries by fairly inexpensive train or cheap flights. You can spend 1600 on room/utilities, 400 on food, 100 on transportation and have 1600euros a month for whatever you want at that salary, with no worries about your health or looking after your kids.

But you probably won't have 4000 square foot house to store your 4 cars in.

> But you probably won't have 4000 square foot house to store your 4 cars in.

Or more generally, you'll just have a whole heck of a lot less money, which was the point. I wonder if djsumdog was exaggerating, though, by failing to compare like against like. The numbers he quoted for US engineers represent the pretty high end. Are there really engineers in Berlin making a lot less than 50k Euros/year?

Belgian speaking here. Have 4 years of experience, my first salary was around 40k. Current salary is 46k, and I am moving next month to Paris in a top tech company (reputed to pay very well there), that will offer me 59k + 14k (average bonus, etc.). And I consider myself on the high end of the spectrum, so yeah, I am pretty sure there is a lot of (young) engineers making less than 50k in Berlin.

NL here. From my previous employer I was making more than 80k euro per year as an engineer, but almost half of the money goes to tax.

So what is the point there? So I quit and work for 3 days per week. Much less money before tax but after tax not really. I feel it is good deal to take 2 days back to life.

So if you want to live in Europe, forget about working for someone else.

Overall, wages in France will be lower in software - with important things to keep in mind:

- health and education are dirt cheap. This is phenomenal for a family (even compared to the the U.K.). The downside is you have less control on your kids/health.

- roles and culture in most companies are still stuck in the 90s. Push and evangelize on what/how you do and you'll get fitter offers

- you'll work less. More holidays, shorter work weeks. Life in Paris is stressfull so you'll need that. A nice bonus is that most Europe cities are a short flight away, great for week ends. Lyon/Munich/Amsterdam/Barcelona are all excellent places too (better than Paris and even London in many respects)

Hopefully we get at least some of you guys to move over here and push for a better community : )

Do bear in mind the different costs of living. My company relocated me from the UK to Switzerland; my salary rose significantly --- but it doesn't make me better off, because I'm spending more.

Depending where you go, it's quite possible that a lower gross salary could end up being quite reasonable simply because costs are lower. (Although that's not going to be true in Switzerland.)

You have to compare based on cost of living.

So you want to get paid like a highly-paid American engineer, but have significantly reduced cost of living and a better work/life balance?

Let me know how that works out for you. Might have to shed the entitlement.