That's funny because a lot of experienced engineers move to Germany from France, Spain, Italy, the UK, etc to get better salaries.

Engineering salaries in Germany are high compared to most of western Europe.

They are low compared to the world. However moving is NOT easy for personal reason. If you are going to move from the countries you listed Germany is going to be easier just because it isn't as hard to get back to visit family.

Is that true even if sum up higher taxes and cost of living in Germany? At least in Eastern Europe(specifically Russia, Belarus and Ukraine), average salary for mediocre software engineer is about 3k$ per month after taxes which is already comparable with German average SE salary. But cost of living in EE is a lot cheaper, apartments in Moscow are 3 times cheaper than in major German cities. Food, on average 2 times cheaper and transportation(taxes, public transport and fuel) sometimes up to 10 times cheaper than in Germany.

This. Quality and extended costs of life are definitely vague but important aspects when considering a move to Germany. There is no perfect lunch let alone free lunch.

Cost of living in Germany isn’t significantly higher than other western European countries. And for engineers, after-tax income is easily 50% higher in Germany compared to the countries I mentioned.

As I said, the union has enough benefits that the value of higher salary positions isn't worth it to many. In the union you are not allowed to work more than 36 hours a week (I might have the numbers off a bit?) and they check to ensure that. Non-union can work longer hours, in practice they don't, but they are allowed to. There are a number of other things like that, the one lead engineer I work with in Germany doesn't think they are worth it, but the majority do.

The above is about great engineers who are holding themselves back. I have no doubt that those who are willing to not be in the union are also willing to leave the country leading to some brain drain, but many are also holding themselves back as well.

What's "the union"? I never heard about it. Not a single engineer that i know personally is in this union(or at least they are hiding that). And literally all of them planning to leave Germany once the good opportunity arrives. Also, i know personally almost 20 engineers who left the country only for better pay and that's during pandemic only.

Many German companies (BMW, Siemens, Bosch, BASF, ...) historically cooperate with unions like "IG Metall". Unions win benefits for their members, but companies usually pass these benefits on to all employees. These benefits typically include: 35-hour work week, regular and performance-independent salary increases for all employees, at least 6 weeks of vacation per year, parental leave beyond the legal minimum, training and job placement if your current job is eliminated, etc. If you are a developer working for one of these companies, the union contracts will always affect you, even if you are not a union member.

It is hard to tell if you are in a better or worse situation as a developer when you work in such a company. Many employees in such companies would like to have a 40-hour week, because that would result in higher pay. Unions, however, push to allow 40-hour weeks only to a small percentage of the workforce on the grounds that if the workload is higher, it should be compensated by new hires instead of overtime for existing employees, since more employees also means more union members and thus more power for unions.

> regular and performance-independent salary increases for all employees

What country are you talking about?

Germany, if the collective agreement for the metal and electrical industry applies to you [1]:

4.3 % pay increase for all employees in 2018, 2.0 % in 2017, 2.8 % in 2016, 2.2 % in 2014, 3.4 % in 2013, etc.

In addition, there are individually agreed salary increases depending performance.

[1] https://www.igmetall.de/ueber-uns/geschichte/die-tariferfolg...

Depends on the industry, different industries get different unions. I believe the ones I work with are in the steel workers union, but since I don't live in Germany I'm sure. I just know they find their union worth it.

Labor Union. But if a Lead Engineer needs a Labor Union for his benefits, then he does something clearly wrong.