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Wait what? If you are a senior software engineer at a good company in Banglore you can easily make 40k - 60k USD an year. After taxes and expenses it becames e

Wait what? If you are a senior software engineer at a good company in Banglore you can easily make 40k - 60k USD an year. After taxes and expenses it becames equalent or better than salaries in most places except for San Francisco(USA), London and Singapore. USA is super hard for an Indian software engineer to immigrate. London is doable but for most of them it's not worth all the travel and staying away from family. People immigrate only if they makes way too much salary abroad compared to India which is hardly the case. Nobody is going to immigrate if they will save a few hundred dollars more a month. So good software engineers mostly immigrate for reasons other than salary (Like living in Europe etc). Edit: Looks like even London don't offer good enough salary for a good software engineer when compared to cost of living.

unicornfinder 7y ago
Indeed. Hell, I've known people from India to move back there in recent years because conditions have improved and whilst the salaries are lower the standard of living they can afford you can end up being a lot better.
- hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
  The pollution in the big tech-centric cities though is still absolutely horrible, and this has to be a big factor for anyone with kids.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  I wonder how many returnees were only able to improve their salaries by that foreign experience (warranted or not).
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
London is fairly notorious for low SE salaries outside of high end consulting, I’m not sure why it would be listed with those other two cities. The biggest problem with India is that talent migration doesn’t really work the other way (same with China), so you have to build companies solely with local talent. That works for lower end software services, but for higher end R&D generally requires some amount of draw from a world-wide labor pool.
- blocked_again 7y ago
  I mentioned London because it had one of the highest salaries in Europe. I don't have personal experience myself apart from what I saw in Glassdoor.
  - cshenton 7y ago
    Cost of living adjusted salaries are what matters, and London has SV level cost of living at way lower salaries.
  - gniv 7y ago
    In Europe, Switzerland is most similar to the Bay area: high salaries, high cost of living and low taxes.
    - blocked_again 7y ago
      Low taxes? California has high tax right?
      - schrodinger 7y ago
        Not compared to Europe I suppose?
        crispyporkbites 7y ago
        Last time I checked take home pay was lower in NY than London for someone earning around 150k before tax. Not sure if that holds true in California...
        pedrosorio 7y ago
        According to this calculator: https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php 120k £ (equivalent of $150k at current exchange rate) becomes net 71135 £ which is 61.8% In the state of New York: https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-paycheck-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-paycheck-calculator $150k gets you a take home that is 68% of gross. NYC imposes an additional local tax between 3 and 3.8% so in the worst case you’re still taking home more than 64% of gross. Maybe the last time you checked $150k was a lot less in £ and therefore taxed at lower rates in the UK?
cshenton 7y ago
London salary to cost of living ratio is terrible. I made a better real income, and at a lower level, in Australia, which many people leave for better salaries in SV.
WomanCanCode 7y ago
I think Texas market seems to offer the best of both world for software developers. Higher salary, slightly cheaper housing and cost of living. Also no state tax.
- wyclif 7y ago
  Yes, but: Texas weather. Unpleasant without constant A/C.
notyourday 7y ago
> Wait what? If you are a senior software engineer at a good company in Banglore you can easily make 40k - 60k USD an year. After taxes and expenses it becames equalent or better than salaries in most places except for San Francisco(USA), London and Singapore. USA is super hard for an Indian software engineer to immigrate. London is doable but for most of them it's not worth all the travel and staying away from family. People immigrate only if they makes way too much salary abroad compared to India which is hardly the case. Nobody is going to immigrate if they will save a few hundred dollars more a month. So good software engineers mostly immigrate for reasons other than salary (Like living in Europe etc). That's not how salaries in a career path work -- you want to have the largest base to start. In a worst case scenario ( no job hopping for massive increases ) the salaries increase based on percentage of the salary, not a percentage of what is left.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

unicornfinder 7y ago

Indeed. Hell, I've known people from India to move back there in recent years because conditions have improved and whilst the salaries are lower the standard of living they can afford you can end up being a lot better.

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
The pollution in the big tech-centric cities though is still absolutely horrible, and this has to be a big factor for anyone with kids.
Scoundreller 7y ago
I wonder how many returnees were only able to improve their salaries by that foreign experience (warranted or not).

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

London is fairly notorious for low SE salaries outside of high end consulting, I’m not sure why it would be listed with those other two cities. The biggest problem with India is that talent migration doesn’t really work the other way (same with China), so you have to build companies solely with local talent. That works for lower end software services, but for higher end R&D generally requires some amount of draw from a world-wide labor pool.

blocked_again 7y ago
I mentioned London because it had one of the highest salaries in Europe. I don't have personal experience myself apart from what I saw in Glassdoor.
- cshenton 7y ago
  Cost of living adjusted salaries are what matters, and London has SV level cost of living at way lower salaries.
- gniv 7y ago
  In Europe, Switzerland is most similar to the Bay area: high salaries, high cost of living and low taxes.
  - blocked_again 7y ago
    Low taxes? California has high tax right?
    - schrodinger 7y ago
      Not compared to Europe I suppose?
      - crispyporkbites 7y ago
        Last time I checked take home pay was lower in NY than London for someone earning around 150k before tax. Not sure if that holds true in California...
        pedrosorio 7y ago
        According to this calculator: https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php 120k £ (equivalent of $150k at current exchange rate) becomes net 71135 £ which is 61.8% In the state of New York: https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-paycheck-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-paycheck-calculator $150k gets you a take home that is 68% of gross. NYC imposes an additional local tax between 3 and 3.8% so in the worst case you’re still taking home more than 64% of gross. Maybe the last time you checked $150k was a lot less in £ and therefore taxed at lower rates in the UK?

cshenton 7y ago

London salary to cost of living ratio is terrible. I made a better real income, and at a lower level, in Australia, which many people leave for better salaries in SV.

WomanCanCode 7y ago

I think Texas market seems to offer the best of both world for software developers. Higher salary, slightly cheaper housing and cost of living. Also no state tax.

wyclif 7y ago
Yes, but: Texas weather. Unpleasant without constant A/C.

notyourday 7y ago

> Wait what? If you are a senior software engineer at a good company in Banglore you can easily make 40k - 60k USD an year. After taxes and expenses it becames equalent or better than salaries in most places except for San Francisco(USA), London and Singapore. USA is super hard for an Indian software engineer to immigrate. London is doable but for most of them it's not worth all the travel and staying away from family. People immigrate only if they makes way too much salary abroad compared to India which is hardly the case. Nobody is going to immigrate if they will save a few hundred dollars more a month. So good software engineers mostly immigrate for reasons other than salary (Like living in Europe etc). That's not how salaries in a career path work -- you want to have the largest base to start. In a worst case scenario ( no job hopping for massive increases ) the salaries increase based on percentage of the salary, not a percentage of what is left.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]