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Comment by theunixbeard | Hacker News Reader

I've always wondered why tech salaries in Western Europe were so much lower than the US (exc. Silicon Valley effect).

Could it be the proximity to similiar-culture Eastern Europe where inexpensive developers are easily available?

Salaries in the US and Europe cannot easily be compared by the numbers alone. There are factors such as minimum PTO, health insurance, paid sick leave, pension payments, etc. that skew the bare numbers. You'll have to find an US job that has similar benefits as the european job to even be on a somewhat level ground.

Pension payments??? What European business or country would pay pension to an American employee just for having worked there for a few years?

The Netherlands will pay a pension to anyone who lives there past the age of 16. You'll get more money for every year you live there. One year of living there will get you something like 18 euros a month when you retire, but it's definitely more than zero. It's giving back to someone who has lived there and (presumably) has contributed by paying taxes. Someone who as lived there all their life only gets something like 800 euro a month, so I think that it's expected that you will have other savings or an employer-provided pension in addition.

I've never lived in the Netherlands, but I hear that employers there will also contribute towards a pension for an employee. This pension will be managed by some sort of private company. I'm not sure if it's a defined contribution or defined benefits pension. The details on when you get your pension and how much you get probably depend on the company that is managing it. It may be that a couple years of working will get you a very small pension or it may be that there's a minimum qualifying period. In any case, you should be able to get some benefit from it, even if it's a one-time lump sum payment.

Getting a little off topic here, but if you're a US "person" subject to US taxes, then those pension payments can be taxable. http://rsmus.com/what-we-do/services/tax/international-tax-p...

If you google around, you can find stories of long-time ex-pats getting blindsided by the taxes associated with those pensions.

Yes. Especially if you have kids. Here in Austria health insurance for kids is free (until they graduate), you get paid maternity leave, Kindergarten and schools are free, college tuition is less than 1000€ per year, and on top of that the state supports you with about 200€ per month for every child.

Define "much lower". Also Western Europe has several different countries.

In terms of "take home per month", expect between 2.5kE and 3.5kE for places like Ireland/Germany/Netherlands (YMMV) for a higher seniority

Now in Spain, Portugal, Italy it is going to be lower

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