Re:My Salary History
by VirusNewbie on Thursday February 09, 2023 @05:43PM
(#34732763)
I don’t think American engineers pay more for healthcare at all. It’s almost all covered.
We pay zero is the point.
Just to give you an example, I work for a tiny software firm of 40 people and my cost for the Cadillac of health insurance is 3$ a month. Each doctor's visit is 40$ but besides that everything is covered. I make 155k USD a year.
Damn, I want your health plan. Mine is more expensive, and it sounds like not as good.
Yeah, it was one of the main reasons I signed up with my company. They don't pay the most but they care for us more than any comapny I've worked for in my life.
The point is that the average American dev takes home a lot more cash than European devs.
Whether e.g. healthcare comes out of my paycheck separately or is paid via higher taxes is just accounting.
My original point was about avoiding the reductive view of comparing one country against another solely by how much cash one takes home for a given job.
Just on healthcare, did you know your per capita spending is 2 to 3 times higher?
I mean by that standard we pay basically zero—employer covers the premiums.
You could argue that's still paying for it and the premium will be high compared to equivalent national insurance payments here.
Re:My Salary History
by generalizations on Thursday February 09, 2023 @05:46PM
(#34732803)
Once you add public services into the equation, you should also account for the lower taxes in the us.
Sure. Overall you probably end up with more money in your pocket. I don't think many would dispute that this is an upside to living in America for an engineer. My point is that money as the sole metric is a bit pointless and reductive.
Remember that in the UK we have access to more public services and benefits etc. Americans pay more here for better or worse eg healthcare.
Overall, I guess American engineers do better. Hard to compare is all when you factor in things like cost of living. Net pay is only one metric.
Many Americans also seem to have to overwork from a European point of view, so you earn more but at a cost most of us wouldn't tolerate. Lack of holidays, long hours etc.
Not a judgement, just contextualising the differences.