35k in a city with a ~40% tax rate and rents approaching 2k/month.
Developer salaries in Europe are a joke.
Developer salaries in Europe are a joke.
You also don't need a car, work reasonable hours and get twice the vacation.
That said, when I was doing the math on moving to the states, a +80% increase in salary still left me with less money in NYC vs Amsterdam. (I have kids: healthcare + kids education + rent basically wipes out your income in the US, it doesn’t in Amsterdam)
Tax brackets are progressive, with 35k you pay about 20% income tax. Expats get a 30% income tax discount for 5 years.
While salaries are low, it does have some advantages to live here. Strong employee protection (you can't get fired for example), paid leave (minimum is 20 days + public holidays), you don't work more than 40h/week, cheap healthcare, good infrastructure and public transport, paid sick/disability, unemployment benefit, welfare, state pension, etc.
It is hard to compare employment salaries. I think it makes more sense to compare freelance wages as they don't have those benefits. Freelance engineers make about 80~100 euro/hour and get some tax discount.
Agree with everything else. Netherlands is a great country.