7 ms·

We europeans are underpaid and taxed to death. The US could easily fill its worker shortage by offering easy visas for EU engineers. Many of us would like to mo

We europeans are underpaid and taxed to death. The US could easily fill its worker shortage by offering easy visas for EU engineers. Many of us would like to move but it's a real PITA to apply to companies that are even willing to consider visa sponsorship. I actually have no idea why this is not the case already. It's basically 1st world to 1st world transition and the one losing would be EU.

jason0597 4y ago
> Many of us would like to move I for one wouldn't. I would never ever ever trade my walkable cities for the monstrosities that are car-centric North American cities.
22SAS 4y ago
Why only offer easy visas for EU engineers? There are good engineers in all countries around the world, EU engineers are not some special breed of engineers.
mjbeswick 4y ago
It only seems like that but people in the US have to pay for things that Europeans take for granted. You might earn more, but most people would end up with less disposable income.
- wil421 4y ago
  Paying $12k on the high end out of your non-taxed income for a family of 4 does not make up for a near 2x salary gap.
  - germinalphrase 4y ago
    No, but medical bills in the US can essentially be unbounded if insurance denies your claim. You pay 12k in insurance. That doesn’t mean you don’t pay anything beyond that number. People literally sock away millions of dollars for elderly care with the expectation that they won’t leave a dime to their kids.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - phendrenad2 4y ago
    Where is that number coming from? I assure you it's much more complicated than something you can express with a single number.
- refurb 4y ago
  For some jobs sure, but tech job? The delta is >$100,000USD/yr, which after tax might be $70,000 which pays for all that stuff you get for free or subsidized in Europe, plus some left over.
  - juve1996 4y ago
    Look at the cost of housing and rents in most US cities that you'd actually want to live in. The others? Forget about public transit. Need a car, and car insurance, and car maintenance. And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck.
    - RussianCow 4y ago
      Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else. > And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck. I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before.
      - juve1996 4y ago
        > Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else. I don't know if that's true. The cost of living, in say, Pittsburgh, is 50% that of San Francisco, so at best it's equivalent. And you can actually get a house and a yard there. > I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before. "You think" that there are a lot of "half-decent" engineers out there. There aren't. The types of engineers making big bucks are not easily replicable. If it was so easy to become a half decent engineer we wouldn't need the song and dance of tech interviews which are an absolute joke. Companies have made the hiring process HARDER not EASIER. This tells that the market is flooded with subpar candidates.
- pb7 4y ago
  United States has the highest median disposable income in the world.[0] The gap is astronomical if considering tech workers alone. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  It really depends on your country. In the UK, the "NHS" everyone seems to love here is completely useless unless you're on the brink of death. Any non-critical care is impossible to get so you end up going private anyway, essentially paying twice.

jason0597 4y ago

> Many of us would like to move I for one wouldn't. I would never ever ever trade my walkable cities for the monstrosities that are car-centric North American cities.

22SAS 4y ago

Why only offer easy visas for EU engineers? There are good engineers in all countries around the world, EU engineers are not some special breed of engineers.

mjbeswick 4y ago

It only seems like that but people in the US have to pay for things that Europeans take for granted. You might earn more, but most people would end up with less disposable income.

wil421 4y ago
Paying $12k on the high end out of your non-taxed income for a family of 4 does not make up for a near 2x salary gap.
- germinalphrase 4y ago
  No, but medical bills in the US can essentially be unbounded if insurance denies your claim. You pay 12k in insurance. That doesn’t mean you don’t pay anything beyond that number. People literally sock away millions of dollars for elderly care with the expectation that they won’t leave a dime to their kids.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- phendrenad2 4y ago
  Where is that number coming from? I assure you it's much more complicated than something you can express with a single number.
refurb 4y ago
For some jobs sure, but tech job? The delta is >$100,000USD/yr, which after tax might be $70,000 which pays for all that stuff you get for free or subsidized in Europe, plus some left over.
- juve1996 4y ago
  Look at the cost of housing and rents in most US cities that you'd actually want to live in. The others? Forget about public transit. Need a car, and car insurance, and car maintenance. And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck.
  - RussianCow 4y ago
    Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else. > And the reality is most tech jobs don't really pay as much as you think. For the good remote jobs you'll be competing with people who are simply better than you ,so good luck. I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before.
    - juve1996 4y ago
      > Even taking all of those things into consideration, $200k in SF is better than $100k pretty much anywhere else. I don't know if that's true. The cost of living, in say, Pittsburgh, is 50% that of San Francisco, so at best it's equivalent. And you can actually get a house and a yard there. > I guess it depends on what "you think" tech jobs pay, but this has not been my experience. If you're even half-decent, there are countless remote software engineering opportunities that pay well above $100k, which is a great salary if you're not comparing it with the top end of the industry. Most companies right now are facing a labor shortage, so it's far easier to get a remote job as a SWE than ever before. "You think" that there are a lot of "half-decent" engineers out there. There aren't. The types of engineers making big bucks are not easily replicable. If it was so easy to become a half decent engineer we wouldn't need the song and dance of tech interviews which are an absolute joke. Companies have made the hiring process HARDER not EASIER. This tells that the market is flooded with subpar candidates.
pb7 4y ago
United States has the highest median disposable income in the world.[0] The gap is astronomical if considering tech workers alone. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...
Nextgrid 4y ago
It really depends on your country. In the UK, the "NHS" everyone seems to love here is completely useless unless you're on the brink of death. Any non-critical care is impossible to get so you end up going private anyway, essentially paying twice.