As already discussed in many places, it's not possible to reach US/SV levels of salary in Europe due to differences in the model of society, taxation etc. Note

As already discussed in many places, it's not possible to reach US/SV levels of salary in Europe due to differences in the model of society, taxation etc. Note however that US companies in Europe pay definitely above the market. So it's not impossible. Partially they pay more because they have more money, as they have access to VS/are listed on stock exchange (and being US-based is almost a most to have this opportunity, even if there are a few successful EU companies) IMO the diff is that in US companies, developers are more than code monkeys who execute what they are told by the PM. Developers in US companies have more impact hence higher salary: This article nicely summarizes this: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/what-silicon-valley-gets-right-on-software-engineers/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/what-silicon-valley-gets-... Can we reproduce this in EU? EU historically has been more hierarchical when it comes to doing business. Young founders probably are less like that, but we need both different attitude to doing business ("IT brings value", not "IT is cost center") + the capital.