Depends on the EU country. Phd students earn more than 40k during their studies in NL, and a starter salary for a phd is 80k or so. Add the social security cont

Depends on the EU country. Phd students earn more than 40k during their studies in NL, and a starter salary for a phd is 80k or so. Add the social security contributions on top, it's closer to 100k Euros for the employer. 40k would be high for Greece ir Portugal though. I guess it's the same for US, depends where you are