Copying an old comment of mine regarding EU vs US nursing salaries:<p>"...our incomes are comically higher for skilled persons than European salaries. I literally make 10 times what my French counterpart would in my profession and with a much lower tax rate so the real difference is even larger. I could work for 5 years and retire <i>in</i> France wealthier than if I had worked a 40 year career in France."<p>This is assuming only 40 hours a week, pick up more shifts and the numbers become even sillier. I suspect that most (if not all) professions could say the same although the magnitude of difference might be a bit smaller. Even if I lived in the EU and never wanted to leave, I'd ride out some years in the US to get life properly rolling back home.
I don't get this mindset for grinding out your best years away in chasing money rather than just enjoying life. Fact of the matter is the money you make will never be enough, even if you become wealthy you won't be able to buy your years back. Enjoy life and good friends all the time rather than in some nebulous perfect future when you've "made it". Speaking as an European here, but that's also why I've never seriously thought about making the jump to the US. The work culture there is just unappealing to me.
If you prefer top-tier work-life balance and social programs, Europe is better.<p>If you prefer <i>having a chance at</i> making mind-bending levels of compensation, the USA is better.<p>On balance, if you want to make very good but not astonishing levels of money but remain in Europe, go to Switzerland and work for a bank while you still can. I'm not saying it's fun, just lucrative.
Notes from Belgium:<p>- A full time working week is 38h by law. If you do work 40h, you get that time (so 12 days/year) back to compensate.
There are talks about a 34h workweek, but that seems unlikely in the near future IMO.
We tend to have 30m lunch breaks, not the 2h long siesta like in the south.<p>- You are required to take your holidays. Your employer can get in serious trouble if you don't, so "leaving vacations days unused" almost doesn't exist.
Some systems allow you to transfer your extra legal holidays to next year, but the base 20 you basically have to take every year.<p>- We also have 10 public holidays. If you have to work on those, you get to recoup the day. Same goes for work on Sunday for most people, if Sunday work is even allowed in your sector.<p>- Sick days are normally not something you have to worry about as an employee, provided you have a doters note (which costs you 4€ for the visit). Although most places are starting to relax the note requirement for short (1-3 day) things.
For short sick leave, you'll get 100% of your wage from your employer. Once it becomes a long term thing, you fall back on the health care system, which usually covers 70% of your wage. Some employers contribute the other 30%.<p>- Health care wise: We pay contributions via our wages into a "mutuality" based system. There are a few choices (1 government run, the rest are non profits) that offer different benefits, but the base coverage is mostly the same. Enrollment in this system is mandatory.
More and more employers offer supplementary healthcare that can have benefits like full reimbursement of brand medicine instead of only the cost of generics, getting private rooms during hospitalizations for free, additional dental coverage, a new pair of glasses every year, ...<p>Note that this is all assuming you are an employee, not self-employed. There are also some legal differences between blue- and white-collar workers, but are slowly being removed over time.
What products have European tech companies made that the average person uses often?<p>I can only think of Spotify.<p>Would love to be enlightened otherwise.
Written by a guy (and submitted by him too) that runs a recruitement agency for European positions...<p>Although I do feel like having a life outside of work is more important than trying to boost how fast the number goes up which is stored in the field labelled "total assets", so Europe is better.
My current MO is: live in europe but take US clients. I'm a night person anyway, but the time shift could be problematic for people who aren't.
Earn in the US, retire in the EU. Working in the EU for life is working for life. But ten years in the US all engines burning and you can take it easy in the EU.
Do you like making money and lots of money, big houses, cheap cars, and the ability to make even more money?
Then move to America.<p>Do you like having a higher quality of life, cool walkable cities, exotic med vacation spots that are honestly better than the carribbean, and several different cultures and languages 1 to 3 hours way?
Then move to Europe.<p>Don't get me wrong, I've lived in Europe and it's very nice but I would rather make lots of money in America. European countries have a different set of problems that offset the many benefits they have.<p>My European friends have asked me how much I make and they've all consistently say I make as much money as a veteran senior executive.