$350 for two kids? I pay $350 a week for one kid to go to daycare. And that's in New Hampshire not in a city like Boston of SF.

And that's not counting food, clothing, and other necessary child expenses.

Don’t forget the govt takes over 40 percent when your making upper class to higher level salaries especially if your single.

That 300k is really only 180k annually. So the govt takes the salary of a lower level upper class person for taxes.

When u make the jump from 50k to a higher tax bracket, taxes will shock u!

In Europe you often only get ~50-55% net and that's often from <$100k salary even at hot tech companies. But in many jurisdictions you then won't have any healthcare or education cost plus lower living cost overall. Pension is also taken care of in many countries. That probably still leaves you worse off than in the US but leads to a bit more even distribution of salaries across the population.

> you then won't have any healthcare or education costs

70 to 80% of healthcare plans are covered by US employers though. So maybe we should compare total comp plus benefits? Health plans aren't total costs, though, because cost sharing and care is expensive... But that means adding cost of living adjustments. But if you are using a chunk of your salary to plan for retirement in a lower COL area, maybe those aren't even fair.

An apples to apples comparison is incredibly difficult.

https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/what-percent-of-health-insur...

In the UK we are taxed at 40% for incomes above, I think, £45k.

Then above £150k, I believe it's taxed at 45%

Plus National Insurance which adds another 2%. But the average salary in the UK is around £30-35k so it's a problem mostly tech and financial workers have.

Wat? My highest overall tax percentage was 32% when I made 300k as a single person.

This seems to be a common misconception, but taxes in the EU are way higher than in the US

That 40% includes federal, state, social security and other taxes taken out.

You seem to be confusing marginal tax rate with effective tax rate.

People making 300k in California will pay between 33% and 39% effective tax rate (depending on marital status), including State, Federal, and FICA.

And that’s without simple tax sheltering techniques like pre-tax deduction for health care, contributing to a 401k, and deducting mortgage interest.

https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator

Actually, that’s a terrible link. Before Trump’s tax increase targeting CA/NY, the SALT itemized deduction lowers the effective tax rate by a further 3% or so, and that calculator fails to include it.

Childcare can be way more expensive in some parts of the US - $500+ a week for 2 kids in the Portland, OR area.

> Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make

Huh? Are you self employed? I don't understand this.

The company I work for has what seems to be progressive deductibles. The less you make the lower your deductible will be. For some people here the only choice is a high deductible plan

The hospitals regularly write off bills for lower income individuals, while better paid patients are stuck with the insurance-inflated bill if they aren't covered.