€100K is not really setting the bar all that high. It's a shame to see so many replies here that consider it to be impossible.<p>Personally, since living in Europe, I've done it two ways. I worked remotely for an American company for several years, at my butt-in-seat Bay Area rate. And I've bootstrapped my own SaaS product business (letting it grow in the background while working for that US company).<p>Another option would be to find a software company here and actually negotiate a market rate for one's self.<p>It's really expensive to live here, compared to the 'states. I don't see how anybody does it on the $35k/year salaries we see reported for software guys.
It doesn't make any sense to compare salaries solely by numbers and without comparing the buying power related to the salary in the given country. Escpascially (!) not in the EU, since it's so diverse. This is most basic economic understanding. It just does not work out, no matter what you take in account to "justify" the the higher or the lower salary.<p>I live in Austria (big corp) and make 1x € a year.<p>My brother lives in Swizerland (big corp too) and he makes 3x € a year. It's a usualy saying here, that you make around 3 times the money in Switzerland compared to Austria, independently of what you work.<p>BUT:<p>In proportion to buying power and minus cost of living he has just about 1,5x € more money to blow (or to safe). Not 3x<p>AND,<p>he also says quality of life is 10x better in Austria: Do you live to work or work to live?<p>Spoiler: He's moving back to Austria in 1-2 years.
I was on this a few years back. Contracting in oil and gas but far fewer well paid gigs in that sector these days I believe. Job was demanding - pressure to keep services running, massively complex environment, everything constantly changing, tricky problems ranging across technical, organisational, political. I didn't last long but even so still managed to pay off a decent chunk of the mortgage! Permie for the moment but always keeping my eye open for that next juicy contract, and building up my skills in the meantime in preparation.<p>I discovered after being there a few months that I was on one of the lower contractor rates!
Where I live (a nordic country) the median for architect level positions is about 4000-5000e/month (we don't talk about yearly salaries here).
After taxes you get about 3000-3500e per month.<p>All tax information is public here and the magazines publish yearly lists of people earning over 100000eur (salary+possible capital gains).
The lists usually never contain anybody doing "low level" work (ie. not CEO level etc.). And actually very few people earn that in salary alone.
Senior/Lead UX designer at a big corp in London: making ~£115k/yr (~€130 at mythical exchange rates), salaried, before tax.<p>Actually took a pay cut, used to be a contractor with a day rate ranging from £600-750 which had me averaging approx £150k/yr and paying much less tax. Considering going back to that soon, although a bit worried about Brexit uncertainty, but right now I'm seeing plenty of contractor roles offering that much, a few up to £1k/day.
In London:<p><pre><code> - Management or technology consultants with maybe 6-7 years+ experience (particularly the more well known firms)
- Many roles in accounting and law firms, approx. similar experience as above
- B2B sales (if they're any good) particularly in finance or enterprise tech
- Almost anyone working in a hedge fund
- Front Office IB roles (quant, trading, business management, sales, et al.) after perhaps 3-5 years
- Other IB/banking roles at mid management and above levels (varies by bank)
- Most any decent technical or business contractor
- Technical architects and dev team leads for large projects
- Some recruiters / "headhunters"
</code></pre>
Source: I have been a consultant and contractor, and worked with/hired for the majority of these roles at £>100k<p>Some of these roles are hard, in cut-throat industries and involve long hours. Plenty are not; get yourself in a middle/back office mid management role in an IB and if you're reasonably intelligent you can take home 100k (and the rest) whilst working from home 1-2 days a week and rarely staying in the office after 5:30. I'm not saying you'll find it satisfying, but it isn't difficult.
The salary scale for jobs paid according to tariff in the electronic (IG Metall) or chemical industry in Germany ends at around 100k€. This can be reached if you stay at the same company for a reasonably long time and don't fuck up. This is far from entry level salary though and most people only reach this in their 30ier or 40ies.<p>Senior technical expert and management positions are usually paid above tariff, starting at around 100k€.<p>There are plenty of positions in the big tech companies and software that are paid above 100k€. It's just very unlikely to get there if you are straight from school. Also, you won't have much luck finding >100k€ positions in the eastern part of Germany.
I have worked in Vienna 2014/2015 (meteorological company) and Melbourne (big 4 bank) present. Vienna annual salary was 34k Euro. Melbourne annual salary is 67k Euro. Europe pay sucks.
Define 100k+...<p>Is it what you get on your account in one year ? Is it what you keeps after paying your taxes and your insurances ? Or is it the global value your employer is paying for you ?<p>I assume you ask for the first one, yet the more representative one is probably the latter.
There is no one in Europe making €100K+ annually.<p>Just kidding... at least I don't know anyone personally. But maybe the Head of R&D of the company I work for could be close to that mark, at least he's driving a Porsche.<p>Yeah.. not useful I know, sorry.
€100k is around £88k and I know of plenty of people in roles in the UK that pay this much, both in and out of the tech industry. The examples that spring to mind are not even in London but the Midlands and the North. Every hospital, University, Engineering Company and bank has many of these positions.<p>* Mid-level management in banking<p>* Leadership and CEO roles in colleges<p>* Financial Controllers and Directors<p>* Pharmaceutical Sales Managers<p>* Surgical Consultants<p>* Cyber Security Consultants<p>* Senior Pen Testers<p>I would be interested to see comparable salaries for these types of roles across the rest of Europe.
Good contract developers (freelancers) in London earn around £450/£500 a day which is clear of 100k euro by quite a margin. Job depends on the client. Job could last
3 months, could last 3 years.<p>Unusual for a salaried permanent developer to earn that amount in London unless they were head of or near the top of a good dev team in a good firm.<p>This is all excluding finance jobs. Finance jobs its pretty easy to get to that salary in London.
You asked when Europe was mostly at sleep. At least most of the ones doing that much.<p>In Berlin this is a quite high salary. However, I do know a few people who are doing 100+<p>It's mostly CEO, COO, CTOs at startups after their B rounds. It's also good B2B Sales people. But I also know developers who make this much.<p>Side note:
This is huge in Berlin and as some mentioned before you already covered health care etc.
Assuming software development: it's not easy to make 6 figures outside of finance / fintech, in London or Switzerland, unless you contract / consult. You could get there working for an SV firm, more likely if based in London / Switzerland and competing for the same pool of talent.
100K/year after or before income taxes ? I'm almost there, but BEFORE taxes. Data-mining & applied math researcher, working remotely from France for a US/Chinese biotech company. Job is nice, paperwork is ok, it's mostly automated.
In London €100K is roughly the ballpark I'd expect a salaried senior engineer or data scientist to earn or more generally any VP level role at a mid-tier startup.<p>If you're contracting a mid-level engineer can normally command ~500/day.
I agree with throwaway_ldn.<p>I work in the front office of an investment bank (strat) and earn 120k after 5 years base (pre bonus).<p>Admittedly it's the higher end of the scale vs. years experience but it's not uncommon.
MD at my last company earned 99,995 (although gbp), so I doubt many people who read HN in a salaried career are earning more than 100k EUR.<p>Generally, Europeans don't have such high salaries.
Belgium, self-employed. Full-stack engineer. Doing consulting work for various companies & other personal projects. Job's pretty good, paperwork is hell.
Any freelance technical expert That is not bullshitting.<p>Paris/Mostly Paris/Various positions doing mostly linux stuff/Usually relaxed.