Based on what I have heard from friends in London and Germany salaries are actually a lot better in Germany. Especially once you account for cost of living.
You mean London and Switzerland. Excepting London, the UK on average is even more low wage than Germany, to reuse your expression. But London, just like Switzerland has an impossible property market if you want o buy something no matter how well you're paid.
I'm from Vienna - CoL compared to salaries here is pretty high but managable with social housing.
It's just that my friend working for a subsidiary of my employer in Zürich makes 3x as much, gets to keep a lot more of that money due to the significantly lower tax burden and then after that her CoL is ~2-2.5x what it is here.
Additionally, her salary is paid in CHF which is deflationary while I get my money in Eurozone Funbucks. As you might know, Austria has been a European inflation leader in the last 1-2 years (~10%).
Compared to the Swiss we are completely and utterly underpaid. For equivalent work and similar living conditions she's left with almost double the money at the end of the year. Note: We both do not live lavishly by any means.
Well, the UK in general and London in particular are particularly bad, because income (outside banking) is very so-so-ish, cost of living (not just housing, but that in particular) spectacularly high and quality of life (again, housing, commutes, infrastructure, etc.) not so spectacular.
Berlin may have comparable salaries (for me it was actually better, but that was probably specific circumstances), but cost of living is dramatically lower and quality of life dramatically better.
There is no secret, that Germany isn’t a country with decent wages. I can see a ceiling somewhere at €100k before taxes. If you are single, you give half away for taxes, if you are not, then you have family expenses. Living like a student I could save €36k yearly. Now it’s only €15-18k. Considering moving to Switzerland, but it’s simply too expensive with family. And good sounding CHF 135k aren’t that impressive with local prices.
I'd go as far as claiming Berlin is a very low paid place in Europe. Living costs and standards are quite low here compared to Munich or Amsterdam. You'd earn 50% more there for the same work.
It's actually a similar price in Germany. There are higher paying jobs in Berlin, but in general it's not unusual to have this price in Europe. France and Spain is even lower.
I don't know, I think you have to look at it with an EU scope. Within Shengen only Luxemburg and Switzerland pay significantly better than France. Germany is more or less aligned
I was thinking purchasing parity-adjusted, where Berlin seems a lot more affordable [0].
Switzerland (where I currently live) isn't such a clear-cut picture, as you say [1]. I earn more than what Numbeo suggests, and that is nowhere close to the top of the salary range.
Ah yes Switzerland salaries are much higher... But costs of living are too. I remember everything in grocery stores cost almost twice as much as they did in Germany.
It's actually quite typical, when you move to places where costs of living are higher, salaries are higher too. You may still struggle to save anything. What you do manage to save can represent a lot of value, but only if you end up selling everything and relocating to a different, cheaper country/city later. I wish I had seen the global scheme sooner.
I assume you feel underpaid only when you look at Swiss salaries form German CoL perspective. But I assume Swiss salaries are not high when you're also paying Swiss CoL, then they're just regular salaries.
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