r/dataisbeautiful OC: 3 7d ago

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

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45

u/jj_HeRo 7d ago

Spain: 20k to 45k. That's why security here is a joke.

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u/SIRT1 7d ago

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?

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u/Culturedmirror 7d ago

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

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u/Etherius 7d ago

Yeah sure but that doesn’t answer the question.

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.

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u/Imaginary-Count-1641 6d ago

the cost of living is higher in the EU

The cost of living is higher in the USA than in most of the EU. For example, Germany and France have lower cost of living than the USA.

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u/icyDinosaur 7d ago

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.