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Comment by tsm | Hacker News Reader

I just moved from Chicago to Edinburgh, and have about ten years of experience doing full-stack webdev at various startups. I've looked into a few UK jobs and they all seem to pay about a third or at best half what I was making at my previous job with a SV startup.

At some point my hand will be forced if I need a visa sponsorship, but for now it's a pretty tough sell.

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Ha, this is just the reality of things in Europe. I guess at least you get "free" healthcare, holidays and sick pay that you might not get in the US. Jobs in London (remote) would pay best I imagine. My role is paying London rate, even though I live in Nottingham. Previous to that I tried contracting which will pay you about twice what permanent work pays (if you have enough work), however that has been complicated since IR35.

Since Brexit, the labour market is missing all Europeans. To work in the UK you have to leave the EU, or be treated as a lower status resident, or do a bunch of paperwork and pay import/export taxes. Employers have not accepted that that is a bill they must pay or workers won't join the UK market.

If you move first, then look for a job, you just have to accept the local market conditions.

Also, as a EU citizen, your time working in the UK would no longer count towards your pension.

Unless you're Irish, be ause that's been grandfathered in.

Although I don't think such an option exists in the UK, several EU countries are offering "Digital Nomad" visas which give you a legitimate status while remaining employed by your SV company.

You won't get the US comp/cost of living ratio anywhere in the world.

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