He said he made 80k Euros ($84.5k) and save 60k euros from that. Where do you get 140k+?
I budget for ⅓ off the top, living in NYC (this is an overestimate, but common practice) for a post-tax income of $100k. High income geographies are correlated with high tax rates in the U.S., too.
Anyways, all this to say that U.S. post-tax-post-benefits income is not wildly different from the E.U. Maybe the main difference is that you can work as a freelancer, expense everything, and effectively opt-out of health insurance, and take home more salary.
But if you're salaried and in tech in the top quartile of the labor market, post-tax savings is pretty much the same in western EU vs U.S. There's no 10x difference in wages, (excluding equity performance, which is not a tax/benefits policy issue).
In general, E.U. citizens I know who have come to the U.S. do it because the businesses here are more interesting and have more upside (i.e. the aforementioned equity upside component). If they're making bigger heaps of money, it's because of startup equity comp, not because of tax or benefits policies.
> But if you're salaried and in tech in the top quartile of the labor market, post-tax savings is pretty much the same in western EU vs U.S. There's no 10x difference in wages, (excluding equity performance, which is not a tax/benefits policy issue).
As someone who's worked in top companies in Germany and the US, I feel confident enough to weigh in on this. Top earners might make 200k TC in Berlin, but engineers at this caliber will earn 500k+ in NYC. And no, rent and tipping in restaurants does not take up that 300k difference.
> If they're making bigger heaps of money, it's because of startup equity comp, not because of tax or benefits policies.
They're making more money because American companies pay more money, because they make more money, they have access to more capital, they hire in a more competitive market.
- 350k is like 200k net in CA
- 200k is ~110k net in Germany
- ~90k post-tax difference
- Germany: 25 days PTO min
- Meta: 25-30 days PTO min
- Google: 20 days PTO min
Considering COL differences, you'd probably save 40-50k more in the US than Germany with these numbers. Maybe it's not significant enough to lose the EU lifestyle bonuses but it's also not nothing.
Going by levels FYI, this would put you in the 95th percentile, the equivalent in NYC would be $400,000.