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Comment by Bootvis | Hacker News Reader

I was offered a job in Munich I think in 2014. Unfortunately, the Cost of Living increase to be expected from living in Munich didn't stack up against the increase in salary.

A pity maybe, it would have allowed working with Clojure.

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may I ask what position/salary you were offered?

It was September 2013 actually. Offer:

Software Engineer with EUR 45.000 yearly salary + bonus up to EUR 5.000 and 6 months probation and cancellation period of 3 months from both sides.

I'm Dutch and lived in the Netherlands and it would have meant moving abroad.

I've seen this over and over again: German software engineer salaries are just too low.

At this point I don't even answer the recruiter emails/messages I get from Germany. The offers are simply not worth the time.

I say this as a European, who has never had US or FANG level wages.

It doesn't sound too bad for that time if it was an entry level position. I started with a similar salary as a DevOps engineer in Munich at the end of 2019. Munich isn't cheap though, I pay 1,5k € in rent for a 54 sqm 2,5 room apartment in a good neighbourhood.

At that point I had 3 years of experience and a masters in Econometrics. A year later I got a much better offer in Amsterdam.

I have a dumb question. Do advertised salaries in EU include tax or are tax deducted. Because I'm the US you get paid $100k but there are taxes and healthcare costs that need to be deducted.

Generally those numbers are gross. The ones I posted were as well. Health care is of course a lot better for less money (unless you're rich).

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