Also you assume they are a) happy to stay in the US b) have no immigration issues to deal with c) don't have a crazy CoL on SV that eats most of that 500k...
Yes, it's not a clear-cut move, but not too bad neither. Salary is not everything.
We're already down a notch. People tend to assume $1 = 1€ in this thread.
There are lots of ways to pay fewer taxes in the US when holding stocks. Plus you have 401k, backdoor Roth, etc. retirement saving plans that are non-existent in Germany.
Mega backdoor Roth is an even bigger thing:
But they need the ability to "level up" (by working with already existing high tech). And then they leave for the US anyway heh.
For example, Bosch has a research campus in california to try to achieve this.
The problem is, that after being 2 years in the US "becoming top talent", you now have the option of staying there making $$$ or coming back to germany.
Even companies like Bosch that invest a lot of money in these types of systems, have huge problems making competitive offers for the people that consider going back.
The top talent is in the US, Taiwan, etc. designing the 3nm plants, operating the 5nm plants, doing research, etc.
Why would a 600k$/year engineer relocate from the US to Germany for a 300k$ salary pay cut ?
I've always made more money at my next job than the previous one.
If a company wants me to leave my life here behind and move 15000km, they better offer me more, like 700k$ or 800k$. In Germany, that would cost the company 1.6 million $ yearly.