I hear this a lot, but you can do the same thing in the US with a much higher salary. I have taken 4 to 5 weeks off in a year, plus two weeks of national holidays, with no pay cut at all. You can negotiate for more. US companies will pay for your healthcare basically completely (your entire family), and contribute towards continuing education and your retirement accounts.

Granted, that doesn't continue after you stop working for them, but we do have federal government provided money and medical coverage after retirement age. I think people have a caricature of what the US system is because as Americans we have a culture of complaining about our government, which I usually wholeheartedly participate in :)

The bottom line is, in my opinion, if you like your particular culture, you will be happier where you are because it won't be replicated quite the same anywhere else. But the overall standard of living for software engineers in the United States is extremely high. Even when people are complaining about housing prices, they aren't much higher than in Europe, and you get a really nice living space for it that is usually much larger with nicer amenities. And in many places in the US, including where I live, the prices are cheaper and I get a nice big house with land and a beautiful view.

I understand and I agree with you for the most part. My response was to the "It boggles my mind that salaries can be so much lower in parts of Europe" comment above me.

Software Engineers definitely get paid more in the US than in the EU. But some of the difference can be explained by it. Although I don't think software engineers in either country have much to complain about.

That being said, these perks that I listed go for everyone in the country, not just the top % of all working people. In one form or another this is paid for by people who can, like software engineers.

p.s. 4 weeks is the legal minimum amount of vacation days here. Most people have double that.

On average means very little, especially across all positions considered. Also, in software it is very easy to bill hours, it very loosely correlates to productivity, which I don't think particularly varies that much across nationalities (and in my experience Americans like to overstate their work ethic as if working overtime is a badge of honor)

Nevertheless 350/40 = 8.75, but it is still far from covering the wage disparity.

I for one, would gladly report an extra hour each day for a 50-500% boost in my salary.

I know it says little, but don't have any stats comparing just IT jobs. This was the best I could do and I think it does get the message across.

The more vacation / paid days off per year definitely doesn't cover the (entire) wage disparity. But it helps. I don't know many Americans that get every 2nd Friday off (36hours workweek) while it is commonplace in NL, as well as simply taking August off by default.

I'm not saying salaries in the US aren't higher. They are! But I just hope my explanation covers some of the "mind boggling" part of how European salaries are lower.

You should be getting 72k for a 4 day week.