Do you work at Google by any chance? I'd say a gross salary of $5000 is close to the ceiling pay for a developer in Poland, in Krakow/Wroclaw even $4000 is more than most employers would pay, not to mention your "middle of nowhere" [0] [1] And if you're looking for a remote worker what difference does their location make?
Sources(in Polish):
[0] http://gazetapraca.pl/gazetapraca/1,120733,16021624,Wysokie_...
[1] http://www.pulshr.pl/wynagrodzenia/place-w-polsce-2016-19-br...
Caveat is that everybody who's good is a self emplpyed freelancer working for US companies. So statistics don't capture them. I'd wager the average for those is around 5000/month.
Freelancer flat rate tax in slovenia is 4% if you make under 100k. That part is nice but makes all my friends unambitious. Always found that part unfortunate.
Yeah, and it's difficult to know who reports stuff accurately, whether that takes into account people living in backwaters vs. fancy offices in Ljubljana etc. etc. etc.
For what it's worth, some Slovenians seem to be reporting healthy salaries here, although as you say, there's a good number of self employed there (and workers in Ljubljana definitely affect the average... or the other way around, you know what I mean):
You do that, and I'm really happy that you do; I've had far too many confusing situations caused by people quoting netto instead, it's definitely common enough that it's something I look out for.
>In Silicon Valley an engineer with 0.5 years of experience makes $100,000/year.
Come on, you've got to compare like with like. In Montana, the median is ~$60,000, and in Georgia ~$80,000. [0] and [1]
Here in Poland, I can find decent enough programmers who'll accept $2k/month salary. Their English will be poor, and typically they'll be based in the middle of nowhere.
If I want to hire someone good in the capital city, Warsaw, I'll need to look at paying a minimum of $4-$5,000/month -> ~$50 - ~$60,000/year.
(I've no idea what it costs to live in Montana; I'd hazard a guess that combined with a (freelancer's) 19% flat tax rate + $300/mo social security, your savings will grow faster here than there)
One other area of confusion can be salaries quoted before and after tax. I know it's common to use after tax figures in Poland, and I'm not sure if your $24k is after tax; the figures you read about jobs in the US are definitely before tax.
[0] https://www.sokanu.com/careers/computer-programmer/salary/Mo...
[1] https://www.sokanu.com/careers/computer-programmer/salary/Ge...