I will respond as a French dev working in the US since a small decade.

Let’s just start by saying that back home, every worker has 5 week of pays vacation by law.

Most qualify worker get 6 , and it’s not uncommon to go in the 7 or 8 with seniority.

Just with that simple fact the « work life balance » a US company has to offer is kinda cute compared to what I would get automatically.

Then come childcare, education and healthcare. Being childless in the US is fine, but when you see the cost of a child you understand the large salaries.

Something I still don’t get after 10 years is how poor people afford kids in this country.

And that's only the half of it. I work for a small software company based in the US with low salaries for the industry. We recently had a benefits meeting and the health insurance scheme was explained with all the little details about the ways you can still receive big bills if you aren't carful. It's mind boggling that this $10,000 per employee per year plan can still result in serious bill anxiety for software engineers working 12 hours a day, living in studio apartments in a HCOL city. The quality of life in the USA can be quite bleak.

> Let’s just start by saying that back home, every worker has 5 week of pays vacation by law.

The laws and baselines could be better for sure. But in the context of Software Engineering for a talented person it's possible to work for non-FAANG companies that pay quite well and offer things like "unlimited" vacation. Unlimited enough that up to 8 weeks a year spread out a bit is not going to cause any issues.

> how poor people afford kids in this country

They live a different life-style. Much more multi-generational and community support for child raising.

> Unlimited enough that up to 8 weeks a year spread out a bit is not going to cause any issues.

That varies by a huge amount depending on company and team and manager. I have unlimited PTO and if I took 8 weeks in a year, I’d be an outlier. I’d also have to be very very careful about optics.

I’m a software engineer with a lot of demonstrable skills and good credentials.

Like I said in another comment the money is stupid high in this industry and country.

I take it of course. And I had unlimited PTO 3 times in 3 different places at this point.

It depend greatly of the implementation. But overall I feel that the only real time off I get is between jobs. Where I usually take one full month. ( if the next job refuse; I take it as a red flag )

It’s not the same, unlimited PTO have to be placed carefully and you have to be mindful about optics.

PTO that you earned and are enumerated on your pay stub are more enforceable.

I would rather have 4 week of normal PTO that a unlimited vacation policies that I’m not sure will be well inplemented.

Large companies tends to do it correctly. In that context I was usually taking 5 weeks. But with some stress and guilt and kinda check my work inbox.

Not the same. But then …you guys have those massive paychecks… I will take them while I can.

>I'm sure there are also office-based US companies with good pay and W/L balance.

They are increasingly difficult to find.

I've done work for one American company selling services in EU, the pay was beyond amazing and lots of work benefits I could never get from local companies. But work life, considering the jargon of the US managers I really wonder how people in the US have time for anything but work. I'll take less pay and happier life any day.

I think someone on HN commented on life in Denmark from a US perspective; that people are only happy because they settle for less. My personal experience is the exact opposit, better life can only come at the expense of work productivity.