Yea... no.
Especially if you factor in the cost of life.
Edit: Average salary in SF for tech workers is $142k vs $56k in Paris [1].
Once adjusted for cost of living, Paris is roughly 86k$ [1].
Now, you add all the social benefits, like free health care, retirements etc. And if you have/plan on having children, you can add free education as well.
All in all it's very far from 2-3 times lower.
You can also add, among the benefits, the good network of public transport (even if some lines are overloaded).
Well, no. That's the point of having an average.
Would be good to have stats for median salary as well
Freelancing is also a good option, with daily rates ~400-700€ depending on experience, you can make a much better living than a regular employee.
The ballpark for your actual cash in hand, assuming no other costs for the company, would be whatever you charge divided by two (social security isn't actually free).
Of course, some things can be expensed, which is a huge advantage, for example a company car or motorbike, a laptop, etc). But it's not entirely free if you use them on your personal time, theoretically you have to pay income tax on some of the object's value.
So the numbers are, considering 220 working days a year (which is probably optimistic, because you have to budget some days to find and develop new leads, plus vacation, sick days, etc):
400 € / day = 88 000 / year => 44-45 000 after tax
Another thing to bear in mind is landlords and banks have a strong preference to rent / lend to people with a stable, long-term contract (CDI). As a freelancer, especially in the beginning, you'll probably encounter quite a few of them who won't want to do business with you. Plus, being a foreigner won't help.
Source: I'm doing the freelance thing.
My friend is diabetic and in poor health, he would go broke if he lived in America and not Europe.
American salaries are 2 to 3 times higher.
The cost of life is NOT twice higher.
Do the math.
Also remember we are talking about tech. Not all salaries.
You need to include benefits such as company car, extra holidays (europe starts with 20 + unlimited sick days), 13th month (get paid twice on december), food stamps (around 8€ / working day), ...
And stock options can be part of the package on both side of the ocean. You should value them similarly.
> The cost of life is NOT twice higher. Rent is around twice higher in SF, and contributes for a significant portion of your total expense. Other expenses (leisure, culture, ...) is indeed more slightly more expensive in SF but not by a factor x2.
Health care is also free for most tech workers or if not free, a blip on the radar. I think I pay $40 a month for amazing healthcare (and I'm in SoCal not in the Bay).
That's an important perk.
This was true in the nineties, but due to dropping revenues (especially in Germany) has been corrected by Dutch farmers since then.
Dutch tomatoes are of the highest quality now.
Salaries are on part with major tech hubs (NYC OR SF are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than paris and salaries match at the end)
Paris is the 15th most polluted city in europe and not the 2nd...
"People are rude" - is a generalization and racism toward parisians. plus if you feel like everyone is rude start asking yourself some questions man....
Plus in terms of dirty you never lived in SF or NEW York or any part of China I guess.
It's not racism, it's just social expectations clashing.
But yeah, try to live in Manhattan...
How can one find something like this?
You will have a way higher fail rate than usual. But they really, really need good devs, and they are getting more rare and expensive, so some agree.
so it’s negative?
But you will stay less hours at the office as well.
And you'll get way more time off.
Also you get to go to the Fontainebleau forest, eat to the "Pates vivantes" in the 9e, and can just walk to buy stuff most of the time. Or roller skate.
They read "2 to 3 times less" as "-200% to -300%" instead of "33%-50%".
French salaries for dev are in the 30k to 70k depending of your level. 70k is rare. You need to be good. To be able to negotiate or have a rare skill.
However 120K USD is not rare in the US. I had proposals for 220k.
Same job in France would be 65k if I negotiate REALLY well.
Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before.
However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging.
Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh.
The culture of flexibility is starting to sink in, but again, you will face the french "lutte des classes" legacy, with old style hierarchies and management structures.
And of course, even including social benefits, the salary is 2 to 3 times less than in the valley. But they will publish crazy requirements in job offers.
On the other hand, working in France is sweet. Paris is great city, and the life style is super nice. And while French people can have a pretty negative attitude, they won't tell you everything is ok or doable before even checking they can, or be artificially friendly to the point it's weird. All in all, it's a lot less pressure.
Best bet is to actually live in France, but remotely work for an American company.
Plus you can buy actual tomatoes and not red plastic balls.