In the city I am in Brazil, I've seen companies that offer from R$2,500 to R$4,500 per month gross (plus the legally required one month's bonus per year), plus

In the city I am in Brazil, I've seen companies that offer from R$2,500 to R$4,500 per month gross (plus the legally required one month's bonus per year), plus other random forms of compensation. Factoring in taxes and union dues (mandatory one day's wage per month go to the union) at USD 1.00=BRL 1.75 it comes out to US$14,000 to US$29,000 net. Some fudging is involved because the exchange rates fluctuate, and I'm not sure exactly about taxes (max marginal tax rate is 27%, plus random other "social" taxes plus union dues) Wages may be higher in bigger cities such as Sao Paulo, but the rent is also higher. Rent in the city I am in may come out to, I dunno, US$500/month rent in a reasonably nearby nice area. I've seen ads for rooms for US$285 taped to streetlights. Overall its not bad, especially since companies will often pay a lunch per diem that is enough to stuff your face at a pay by the pound buffet and are legally required to pay for your bus fare to get to work. This is for nice jobs where everything is done by the book. There are some pretty lousy jobs where nobody follows the rules and the pay is awful but I suspect that they are rare for computer programmers as opposed to say construction workers or janitors. As a lifestyle it compares favorably in some ways to paying 50% of gross in taxes on a US$100,000 1099 contract job in New York City that involves commuting over an hour from some s---hole in New Jersey. Been there, done both.