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Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

>> "London salaries are considerably higher and it is the only tech hub where developers can break the 100K GBP"

This might be true for big companies but certainly not startups. In my experience mid-level developers can expect around £45K and senior £60k (at startups). You could break definitely break £100k with contract work though.

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More or less but is what's available, same thing goes for the continent, a developer for Amazon in Berlin would be making 60-65K euro's. The UK used to be a big upgrade even outside of London due to the relative strength of the currency(especially during the Euro crisis), but the EUR and the GBP are almost at parity these days so that's gone (if you are making 50K GBP it's 59K US, if you are making 50K EUR it's 55K US these days).

Just pure salary comparison isn't enough though. London has crazy living costs, and Berlin's response is the heavy taxation (about 40%-45% including the compulsory health insurance).

40-45%? Is this true across Germany? Wouldn't this put it higher than Sweden?

That’s after including healthcare and insurances, usually.

(Against all rumors, Germany doesn’t have universal nationalized healthcare)

As the other commenter mentioned, this is after including a compulsory health insurance which is about 15% of your salary. And yes, taxation in this income bracket is higher than in the Nordic countries. Can't say if this is true across Germany.

You can also choose private insurance if your income is high enough, which can then be cheaper for you than the mentioned 15%. The income limit for that is something like 55-60k/year, if I recall correctly.

London has a high cost of living only really around rent, and if you are willing to flat share, or live in a non-central location you don't pay that much. Sure it's not the 300 EUR a month you can get in some other major EU cities but it also doesn't have to be 3000 GBP a month for a 2 bedroom either (and it can go much higher than 3000 for a 2 bed/NYC size studio if you were wondering).

How about contracts? Is there a "company" way of contracting? Or 40-45% tax still applies to freelancers?

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