That said, this new +remote world is providing new salary competition from US companies who do pay more but don't require moving to SF for example. Even so, the work-life balance here is much better than in the US, and I suspect part of that also has to do with salary. If the salary is not super high, the workers feel more entitled to take their actual vacation days. In the US, not only are there fewer paid vacation days, but many employees don't use them all.
Many years of my life I took no more than one week; when you're gone, stuff happens, landscapes shift, job security weakens, etc. In Europe however, your job is more likely to be as solid when you return from holiday as it was when you left for holiday.
I am debating right now whether to stay with my medium pay happy relatively easy company (with very good job security) for more money and less of the other things. We shall see.
What does bother me a bit is seeing managers who frankly use less of their brains getting paid as much or more. I don't bemoan doctors earning more than me because I recognize they have worked harder, studied more, and have more real daily risk in their work than I do. But likewise, many managerial positions can be trained in a matter of weeks, but the work I do takes years to learn and perfect. But c'est la vie.