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Comment by vladvasiliu | Hacker News Reader

While Switzerland is technically "Europe", people should bear in mind that it's in no way representative of the other countries. Salaries are much higher over there, even when compared to other "rich" countries (France, Germany, etc) Cost of living too from what I understand.

In Paris, for example, 50k is a pretty common salary for a not too senior developer. Outside of Paris, you may need some experience to be able to get that.

Source: A few friends working at tech companies with branches in France, UK and Switzerland (among others).

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From my experience, Switzerland is definitely better compared to countries like, let's say, Germany, in almost every area of life - standard of living, salaries, closeness to the nature, taxes, healthcare - you name it.

Average salaries for devs : - Germany: 50k EUR / year; - Switzerland: 95k CHF / year. Of course, it depends on the specific canton/city/town when you want to settle down, but you need to take to account taxes as well. In Germany, they will tax you pretty heavily, around 50%, and Swiss taxation is ~30%, more or less.

Of course those are rough estimations, but you get the point.

In terms of costs of living, it is expensive, especially if you want to live in Zurich, but for a dev earning ~100k it won't be that much of an issue. Of course, you can choose a smaller town and cut down all expenses in half :slight_smile:

Sources: SwissDevJobs.ch, GermanTechJobs.de, Payscale.com, Numbeo.com

Agree on that - spent a few years in Switzerland and consider it the best place for devs in Europe.

Beautiful lakes and mountains are another nice perk there.

There is a bias for EU citizens now that Switzerland has entered the Schengen. And if you are American, opening up a bank account to have your salary deposited in is problematic (or was a few years ago).

You can't compare plain salaries without looking at the buying power though. Switzerland is expensive as fuck.

Agreed however we are shengen and europe too. In paris those 50k wont allow you to live in a nice central apartment. If youd only made 100k in switzerland you can find that.

Its anectotal however for me and my partner we basically earn 3 and 2 times as much while cost of living is more or less only 30-50% higher than in Austria. Saying its expensive and therefore you earn more is to simple :)

> Agreed however we are shengen and europe too.

Right, but my point is that Switzerland is an "anomaly" in Europe (in more than just income), so people shouldn't base their image of Europe on the situation in Switzerland. Just as we Europeans shouldn't judge the US situation on SF and maybe NY.

However, they should know that it exists, so maybe focus on moving to Switzerland in particular instead of "Europe" in general if that's what they're looking for.

> In paris those 50k wont allow you to live in a nice central apartment.

Exactly, and that's the whole problem to me. Most young engineers will usually rent a very small appartment in the beginning, get a roommate or live somewhere far out in the suburbs.

Interestingly enough,just a few years ago €50k was an absurd salary in a lot of Eastern/Central European countries, however fast forward to 2021 and it's not that uncommon for those with experience. The quality of life would be absolutely incomparable having such salary in let's say Talin va Paris.

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