Anecdote to back that up: I caught a BBC podcast this morning, about native vs immigrate skilled workers, which suggested that £50,000 ($68k US) was an ordinary

Anecdote to back that up: I caught a BBC podcast this morning, about native vs immigrate skilled workers, which suggested that £50,000 ($68k US) was an ordinary salary for a software developer in the UK. That's better than the median UK salary, but not exactly a huge draw. The average in the US is six figures. The methodologies that produce those numbers are always dubious so I wouldn't take that as definitive. But it does support your assertion that UK tech salaries aren't great, at least compared to the US.