hoebaggins

I negotiated extended vacation days and a leased company car over pay. Makes both parties happy in this case.

Free lunches as in the company pays for the food but the lunch breaks are not paid.

It's not the norm, no. I negotiated more vacation over more pay and I get 25 days in the summer like everyone else and another 15 days to use whenever I can which usually isn't a problem especially during the holidays like now. I only had to use 10 days this year thanks to it being a "good year" when it comes to vacation and "red days".

Clearly not.

I'm a swede and I used to live in the US, specifically the bay area, SF. I moved back to sweden 5 years ago and while I make less than half of what I did (~150k/year) while working and living in the US, my living standard here in sweden is so much better in every possible way.

I make roughly the equivalent of $70k/year before taxes here in Sweden (it's above average) but I pay less half of what I used to pay for a 2 room apartment in the bay area but instead I get a 300 m2 architectural designed lake house less than 20 minutes from my office. Buying a house of this size and good location in the bay area would cost millions of dollars. I paid less than $400k.

I work remote 3 days a week, I get 8 weeks of paid vacation a year (currently on vacation and I haven't been at work since 14th of december), universal healthcare plus free private healthcare (well "free" because I do pay $15 in fees once every visit) as one of my employee benefits, free lunches plus so called Rikskortet (can be used to buy meals at restaurants or groceries that for me covers the whole month), wellness benefits (basically means I get a free gym membership at whatever gym or physical activity I want), a company car ('17 Audi A7) where I only have to pay for gas which I rarely need to do because I live close to work and I work remote more than half the time.

So basically I pay roughly the equivalent of $1500 a month in total (mortage, utility bills, insurance, food etc) for my current stress free life these days compared to when I used to live and work in the US where I paid $4000 a month just in rent alone for a small apartment.

I'd say that I have a quite comfortable life at this point.

"It's cool to pay taxes"

- Mona Sahlin, former leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.