
Ask HN: Which countries have salaries $150k+ for software engineers - fargo
I am currently a senior dev in the UK and I would like to move to a different country for a few years but I am not sure which countries have good enough markets for software engineers. I am looking for a country where a job would provide me with a salary around 150k or something comparable to a UK salary. EU countries except Switzerland don&#x27;t seem to have comparable salaries and US is out of the picture since I do not have a visa.
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sn9
Why do people focus so much on dollar amount for salaries?

They aren't very informative when you don't take into account the differences
in local/state/national tax rates, purchasing power, cost of living, etc.

You need so much more information to get a decent picture of how much better
or worse a job offer is relative to what you currently are getting.

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hashr8064
absolutely. Wanting to know the salary without looking at the full context is
like wanting to know the run-time of a function and only looking at one of its
many subroutines.

For instance, 60k in some areas of the USA means you are living like a king,
have acres of land, a lake, multple cars, etc. That same amount in NYC
probably makes you homeless.

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chillacy
An iPhone costs roughly the same no matter where you live, it’s still more fun
to visit Vietnam on an SF salary then it is to visit SF on a Vietnamese
salary.

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thetricia
And for the most part when the prices differ 9 out of 10 times it's more
expensive outside the US (and sometimes significantly so).

Whenever I go to the US it's shopping time. Pretty much everything is cheaper.
And many items you just can't get elsewhere (which is another aspect many
ignore).

I know this is going to be controversial, but healthcare-wise high earners
might be better-off in the US too. Generally it would seem to me, the more
money you make the better US is in comparison.

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DoofusOfDeath
Depending on your goals, another interesting question might be:

"Where could one work as a software engineer that gives the quality-of-life
and retirement-lifestyle that I'd get from making $150k USD in the US?"

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efficax
Salaries around 150k for senior engineers aren't even that common in the
states outside of the Bay Area and New York. Can you keep your current
position but work remotely from the EU?

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natalyarostova
This hacker news paradox always pops up, where people say this isn't common,
but literally every SDE I know, even those straight out of undergrad, makes
more than that all-in.

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chillacy
Maybe people are only looking at base salary instead of total comp.

If anyone’s curious what the going rate is these days, visit levels.fyi and
read some threads on Blind. Senior SWEs often land over 300K TC at the big
companies.

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fierro
I feel HN really needs to start making a distinction between salary and
compensation. Especially for mid level to senior deva, equity and bonus can
make up over 50% of total compensation, changing the nature of the question
and the conversation.

For example, every dev I know in the bay area nets over 150k in total
compensation

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quickthrower2
If you can sell the equity immediately I would consider that salary, although
I know technically it isn't.

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jaclaz
>something comparable to a UK salary

How much (roughly) is the UK salary you have in mind?

AFAIK salaries in the UK are not that much different than - say - Germany or
Sweden, and with the exception of Switzerland and Denmark that are
surprisingly higher, they often compensate for the local cost of living.

[https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-
sof...](https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-software-
developer-trends-2018)

I believe that the US$150K+ that you look for are actually valid only for some
selected companies in places like the Bay Area where the cost of accomodation
is "crazy" and can easily amount to 1/4 of that.

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fargo
At the moment I make around that in the UK. The cost of living while higher is
not comparable to the salary difference. I am open to moving to a non-eu
country as well.

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ashtar
Those salaries exist around the minneapolis/st. paul area at a few of the
larger corps nearby.

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b3b0p
Can confirm and the upside is that cost of living is still manageable.

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airbreather
Salary or contract?

Depending what you do, Australia, but you may need to be somewhat
specialised/niched.

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ajaychinna
[https://www.capitalinfosol.com/blog/Salesforce-
Administrator...](https://www.capitalinfosol.com/blog/Salesforce-
Administrator-Vs-Salesforce-Developer)

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aprdm
Vancouver / Canada and Toronto / Canada for senior software engineers who have
been in the company for a long time.

Entry Senior would be around 120k base in a good company, yearly raises will
get you there.

P.S: Talking in CAD not USD.

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stuxnet79
As a Canadian, familiar with the markets in the mentioned cities I'm going to
have to ask you to be more specific than that. What specific companies,
industries etc?

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digianarchist
I'm in finance and earn $120k. Canadian dollars not US.

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stuxnet79
Are you a quant / trader or doing run-of-the-mill engineering in back office?

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digianarchist
Devops. I don't even know how banks work I just keep shit running.

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farseer
Only the US. There are exceptions to every rule of-course but you'd have to be
in a niche field or live in an insanely expensive place such as Luxembourg or
Zurich.

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gadders
It's possible in the UK at VP level in Banking, or as a contractor. You'd need
either niche technical skills or financial services experience or both.

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gorm
What kind of tax level in percentage would you need to pay on that in the UK?
Do you also get pension benefits on top of the salary?

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fargo
around 40% tax and pension depends on your contributions.

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anaccountwow
Are you sure you can’t get an US visa? There aren’t a lot of other places...

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thiago_fm
Definitely NOT Berlin.

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hackeronezero
Unless you are 10x engineer, bay area.

