> I even doubt one can get $130k in London.SWEs in London are not competing with other SWEs. They are competing with bankers and similar. It's certainly harder

> I even doubt one can get $130k in London.SWEs in London are not competing with other SWEs. They are competing with bankers and similar. It's certainly harder than in, say, SF, but by no means impossible. Google and Facebook between them have thousands of engineers in London and are growing fast. They're not paying as much as the US, but are by no means stingy. £100k ($130k) is not unrealistic. If you want some anecdotal data, I transferred from the Bay Area to London and my base salary decreased about 25%. But then again, a nice one-bed apartment in London can easily be easily found for $2k...try finding that in SF.