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Comment by piva00 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, we use gross numbers for salaries but the gross salary value does not include social contributions, payroll taxes/fees paid directly to the government, the gross amount is just before income taxes. There are quite a few extras on top of the gross advertised salary which the company pays for and we employees don't even know about (it's not shown in payslips).

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Given that the Glass Door numbers are the gross value including reimbursements and taxes… What exactly is your point here?

My point is that Swedish employees who input data into Glassdoor will have no idea about the extra social contributions, work insurances, and taxes paid by the employer that aren't available in your payslip. A payslip here only includes the gross salary without those add-ons, and so you aren't aware that your employer is paying some 50-70% on top of the gross salary you see in the payslip.

Maybe I've misunderstood what the parent comment meant so correct me if I'm wrong.

Glassdoor numbers will be gross of income tax, but not include employer social security contributions, which is 31.24% on top of what you see as listed gross salaries. That is his point.

Don't forget if you're doing back-of-the-envelope stuff that there is also 20.6% corporate tax on revenue that has originated in Sweden. And companies resident in Sweden are taxed on their worldwide income, although if they are taxed elsewhere then this elsewhere amount can be deducted. But this means you are paying at least that amount. I imagine some chunk of Spotify's workforce exists to optimise and figure out all of that, given the number of legislatures and tax environments they have subscribers in.

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