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When counting your tax in the US add in your health insurance cost to compare to most of Europe. Or if it's parts of Europe like Portugal where there is health

• AdrianB1 2y ago
  It is realistically much more than 14 euros. In Eastern Europe I pay almost 700 Euro per month in mandatory state health tax (it is not an insurance, it is a tax because it is a percentage of income, not related to what you are covered for).
• profeatur 2y ago
  Yes, there is a public health system, but people tend to avoid it when they can. Most opt to go private for their dental, for example. And if they have any kind of systematic (sibo, ibs, autoimmune, etc) problem the public system is useless and they will have to travel to find a private specialist. On the other hand, the private system is really good here, and also pretty cheap.
  • insane_dreamer 2y ago
    Dental is also typically not covered by medical insurance in the US (dental insurance is separate and works differently).
• johngladtj 2y ago
  If you're counting that you should add the +30% for social security in Portugal as well. Straight up if you actually do the math and count every tax paid directly a d indirectly someone making minimum wage has a effective tax rate above 60%
  • Aerroon 2y ago
    That's only true if you take into account VAT as well though. But you're right, the big taxation items in Europe are not the income tax, but the "social tax" and VAT. The first is added as a payroll tax (>30% in some places) and the second is basically a sales tax on every purchase (>20%). These two tax items alone add up to a crazy percentage of your income.
• refurb 2y ago
  Employers pay 80%+ of healthcare costs for most Americans so you’d need to add that $20-30k to their wages to get a comparable measure of income. (Which is why wages haven’t grown that much while total compensation has grown much more)