Also the salaries are acceptable (imo) compared to fairly high paying US jobs if you compare real working hours (vacation time, real 40h workweeks etc.). With a family there's even more benefits. Cost of living also tends to be fairly low (with a high quality of life) compared to higher paying places.
Getting double the vacation time (6 weeks instead of 3) when I moved from the US to Germany was very nice, but going back I'll have 5 weeks, which isn't too bad.
I keep hearing this. Yes, you will get 5 weeks. But what about your wife, your uncle, your friends? In Germany they're all guaranteed to have the same number of days off, access to healthcare, etc. When you have kids you have a bunch of weeks/months off before the child is born and more after.
In the US, as long as you're young, healthy, rich and selfish, life is grand :D
And once someone acquires citizenship, their descendants can't lose it, provided it's their only citizenship.
Agreed, I'd love it if all Americans were entitled to 5 or 6 weeks of vacation, plus the various other benefits that are standard in most of western Europe. Unfortunately, the GOP exists, so that's not happening anytime soon.
Yes, it absolutely is. And Berlin is the best example; we're even underpaid by German standards.
I don't even get 80k€/year and have a very luxurious and high quality life in Berlin.
Resource: https://wid.world/simulator/
If you're in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas or several dozen other major cities, cost of living is very reasonable in the US. Your healthcare costs are typically either entirely, or mostly covered by your employer if you're an engineer making $100k+. In Atlanta your all-in effective tax rate is under 30% at $110,000; in Dallas it's under 24%. What's the problem?
In the US in an average taxed state, compare a $150K salary: After federal and state taxes, our old person medical and retirement (i.e. FICA), maximum retirement investment of about $19K, health insurance, disability insurance, dental, etc, one will end up with about $7200 a month or $86K / year in their pocket, which is roughly 42% taxes and retirement. This includes 3 weeks of vacation and 10 Federal holidays.
In addition your employer pays an amount equal to about 10-15% of your gross salary into your health and retirement insurance. And this pay is on top of your salary. (Arbeitgeberanteil)
Holiday is always included with a minimum of 21 days a year for a full time job. And Germany has paid parental leave included if you start a family.
Average lawyer: 50k€/year [1] Average doctor: 75k€/year [2] Average engineer: 60k€/year [3]
[1]https://www.gehaltsvergleich.com/gehalt/Rechtsanwalt-Rechtsa... [2]https://www.gehaltsvergleich.com/gehalt/Arzt-Aerztin-Uni [3]https://www.gehaltsvergleich.com/gehalt/search?jobname=Ingen...
Salary for developers really isn't that much of an issue. In Berlin for example a developer gets two or three times the median salary easily. That's enough for attracting people who are talented enough to choose, e.g. git and JIRA over whatever crusty system of shared folders and zip files or IBM crap you'd see for projects in many companies.