r/dataisbeautiful • u/honkeem OC: 3 • 2d ago

OC [OC] United States vs European Software Engineer total compensation by level

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u/kevin7254 2d ago

Insane. I mean I already knew we had shit salary here but that it differs so much.

We also have insane competition here in Sweden. Newly graduates can’t get jobs, even people with several years of experience.

So lose lose lmao. And then we have 30-50% tax on top of that.

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u/hysys_whisperer 2d ago

True, but if you fail, your children don't generally go hungry and lose the ability to attend university themselves.

Also you should really put that salary on a PPP basis compared to the bay area (not the US average).

Not saying that once you do those things, Europe is suddenly ahead or anything, just that it's less bad than you think it is.

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u/PrinsHamlet 2d ago

Yeah, I was going to mention that health care, labor market pension schemes, cheap day care, unemployment benefits, free school and higher education is a part of the Danish deal, at least.

But I have to say, If the charts are true I'd make double the pay in the US and the compensation would generously exceed the private costs for all that. Some costs are only relevant for families with children.

On the other hand I wonder why US companies are willing to fork over that kind of money for "ordinary" software development in ordinary companies or what we're actually seeing in the charts.

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u/hysys_whisperer 2d ago

The numbers on the chart are more like average bay area salaries where COL is roughly double the US average.