The numbers within the EU and EEA are PPP adjusted not that badly off. Ukraine is an extreme example where part of ones salary often bypasses the state and taxation so is Greece which has a dysfunctional government and evonomic slump. With extremes like that you might as well compare it with Detroit or if we don’t stick to the EU might as well compare with Mexico.

Detroit (Michigan State) - average monthly wage 2016, 3,210 EUR per month (source: bls.gov)

EU/EEA countries, selected average monthly wages:

Portugal : 1158 EUR Estonia : 1201 EUR Latvia : 925 EUR Lithuania : 851 EUR Poland : 1102 EUR Czech Republic : 1149 EUR Slovakia : 980 EUR Hungary : 955 EUR Romania : 787 EUR Croatia : 1081 EUR Bulgaria : 586 EUR Greece : 1092 EUR

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...)

Summary - Detroit/Michigan wages are three to five times higher than all of the above EU/EEA countries.

No figures are PPP adjusted (but clearly there is a very large gap between Detroit/Austrian-grocery-store-wages compared to much of the EU/EEA).

If we don't want to stick to the EU (btw, you originally referred to "Europe"), using the examples proffered so far:

Mexico 664 EUR per month vs Ukraine 264 EUR per month

As I tried to explain above the wages alone do not matter. Detroit is a dysfunctional city with severe lack of basic services. I strongly doubt any EU citizen no matter how disadvantaged would see an improvement by a hypothetical move to Detroit.

Mexico and Ukraine I cannot comment because I know little about it.

20 years of experience in development , 5year degree from computer engineering school, with Mba and PhD. Net 13000 eur per year. Greece