I'm sure it's true at the top end - if you are a $500k pa dev in the USA you are going to be massively better off. But if you are in the <$300k range I think t

I'm sure it's true at the top end - if you are a $500k pa dev in the USA you are going to be massively better off. But if you are in the <$300k range I think that you are pretty likely to be as well off in the UK even though your top line pay is 1/2 or 1/3 of the USA rate... especially if you have kids. The reason is healthcare. In the USA you can (with bad luck) get royally screwed if you have a health incident - even with good insurance. And employers are very wise to this, and so ditch employees who have that liability (ie are not 25) So - yeah, at the top... but further down the pecking order it's not so clear.