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Comment by Toutouxc | Hacker News Reader

European Rails dev here, working for a startup with a cozy atmosphere, friendly team, not job hopping or playing the Leetcode and 100+ interviews game, I’m looking at something like $50k, which is very nice in my country, but sometimes the numbers getting thrown around here make me feel kind of uncomfortable.

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Take a US salary and halve it to compare it to an EU one

https://expatriates.stackexchange.com/questions/538/how-to-m...

EU is a collection of countries / regions with higher / lower pay. 50K US can go far in eastern europe but dry up quickly in Paris, France.

Same with US being a collection of states with vastly varying tech salaries.

50k does not go far in EE unless you mean bumfuck nowhere.

Depends what you mean by "far". For me, someone who grew up in a large family with a single income much smaller than that, yes it does.

The average (take-home) pay in the Czech Republic is a little over $18k. A little more in Prague, but $50k still puts you firmly above most of your friends and family.

We are comparing QOL for ICTs not average people.

I live in Budapest, my salary is around $53K. My wife doesn't work (although she does get maternity benefits which come to around 650USD/mo.

I live a comfortable life. I rent a flat in the city centre which is big enough for me, my wife, and my son. We eat out. We travel abroad about once per quarter (UK, Switzerland mostly). I wouldn't call Budapest 'bumfuck nowhere', and I don't think there are many significant compromises on my quality of life. The one concession I would make is that we don't have a car, it's just unnecessary.

We could easily get by on my salary alone just by reducing the frequency of our travels to three times a year, but as my family lives outside Hungary, we don't. There aren't many folks anywhere in the world who could say that they can support a family on a single income.

I miss Budapest. How would you say the business environment and software business or startup scene in Budapest?

Honestly, I wouldn’t know. I work in one of the big SSCs here, and I’m not really involved in the software startup scene here.

I'd imagine it being fairly sad. I live in the Czech republic and it's a lively scene, but just leagues away from a place like London or SV. Small country, bubble universe effect, small thinking, for the most part. Many founders aim at the local market, which is tiny, because they can't imagine competing with western companies (when they totally could).

50k will do you quite well in Warsaw, as well as most other Polish cities. Even more so outside of the large cities.

Disagree. 50k is barely getting by if you dont own an apartment in Warsaw.

So what’s your experience with living in Warsaw, Lisbon or Prague? The locals don’t seem to agree with you.

That is a great salary in Portugal.

Not for Lisbon.

50k in Spain put you well beyond the median salary[0]

[0]https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/5139571/0/salario-medio-esp...

Spain is not EE.

50k will get you a great life in Prague, which is hardly bumfuck nowhere

No It won't. Prague real estate is expensive and 50k is barely middle class for ICT.

Sorry but it sounds like “gets you far” to you means nothing less than “you can buy the whole town”. $50k is roughly two times the average salary in Prague. If you make twice as much as most normal people, you’re “getting far” by definition. Yes, real estate is expensive in Prague, that I agree with.

Thank you for sharing that. It is too easy to forget about the economic disparities in the world. There are talented developers all over the world making vastly different salaries for the same quality of work.

Sorry :(

In the US, especially in NY, 120k or so is starting salary at a startup. Maybe 110k at some. Normal pay for a Sr engineer is 170k -> 220k.

Now if we go into FAANG numbers, double or tripple that as total comp.

But to be fair, there's a lot that your society gives you that we don't get. I currently pay 2k a month for health insurance for myself and my daughter, 3k for me, daughter, and fiance. Companies do better with insurance as they get better. And even with insurance we often pay for many services out of pocket. I pay 2.6k for an apartment and it _IS CHEAP_ because I live an hour away from manhattan, most people pay 4-5k a month for a 1 bedroom, or room with many people.

Also where I live a car is not mandatory but incredibly convenient. Which means another 166/mo for insurance + whatever you pay for the car which can easily end up in the $1000 a month for the car (because parking is not great)

The pay is high, but the cost is high too, it just makes certain things cheap by comparison.

Brutal. To compare: I live in the Czech capital, in a 45 sq.m. apartment in a quiet, green neighborhood, the rent is $920, healthcare is free, my expensive car insurance (cheap car but every-checkbox-checked insurance) and parking is < $100 a month.

$50k can provide for a small family here, but cars and MacBooks are much more expensive for us.

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