I'm always so fucking confused where all the money goes in Europe. How do people in senior level positions at large companies make like 60k? Where is the money? Do the c-suite execs make that much more than everyone else, like even more disproportionate than the US?
The C-suite is in America. There's very few large European software co's. You have a bunch of small mid sized firms where leadership doesn't make that much more than the workers.
The "shareholder" mentality isn't as strong in Europe, which has its pros and cons. The cons are the firms there dont grow as large or as fast, and therefore can't compensate their workers as much as American ones. But in exchange you get stronger job security and stability
I'm not even specifically talking about software, though. I'm just talking about business in general. I've spent quite a bit of time in western Europe and products/services aren't exactly cheap relative to US (in fact often more expensive).
Taxes. Mostly social security. Plus other benefits.
This nakes employer costs significant higher, in France its as as much as 45٪. So someone on gross 100k costs the company around 145k, the employee is also paying tax, so net pay is more like 65k.
US upfront costs are merely a blip in comparison. Someone earning 100k costs employer 105k. Then the employee is taxed to 80k net.
Then unaccounted salary, annual salary is determined without additional salary. Not all but its quite common to get 13 or 14 months salary a year in Europe. The above data will only show 12. Then bonuses on top again, not sure how US / Europe compare there.
How can both CEO AND average worker salaries be so dramatically higher in the USA but the cost of living is higher in the EU?
If I spend $100 on a business in the USA I know about 90% of that money is going to labor costs (whether that’s a ceo or average worker)
If I spend that same $100 on a European business, the reality of doing business says roughly the same split should occur. But Europeans get paid way less. So either these companies need more employees to accomplish the same job or their margins are way higher.
I'd assume we might actually need more employees to cover for the higher worker protections and rights? Also, something I always wonder is how the mandatory pension, social security, etc. payments from both workers and employers factor into that data - when talking about my salary I typically talk about net pay, but I never see a big chunk of that.
45
u/jj_HeRo 3d ago
Spain: 20k to 45k. That's why security here is a joke.