I understand, sorry but I was thinking of all the frequent comparisons made with the bay area on this website. But true enough Scandinavia is at the top of european salaries, at least Stockholm. Not down south where I live in Malmö, because the cost of living is much lower.
Swedish average wages are close to the top (if not at the top)in EU. The wage gap is a lot lower than most countries though. Just mentioning since I stated Swedish wages were low not long ago, but when I looked it up that wasn't the case overall, it's just that normally high paying jobs pay less there.
When I asked a Swede why salaries in Stockholm are comparatively low even by german standards (mostly because cost of living is higher in scandinavia while salaries are similar) he told me that it might have to do with the fact that in Sweden people are not supposed to rack up huge savings because they will be taken care of by the state when they retire to be able to still live comfortably. Basically you just need to earn what you need to live comfortably unlike in the US where you have to do a lot not to be poor when you reach retirement.
The guy was not in tech and also a generation older than me, so i am not sure if it's fully true, but i was surprised by the low salaries in relation to the cost of living.
I don't want to offer the canned rebuttal to this either, but, the free healthcare and education don't make up for a salary potential that maxes out at 2-3X lower than what you could make in the US (especially combined with much lower taxes).
The fact is, the Nordics are de-facto the best place in the world to be below average. They're not a great value if your skills offer you above-average earning potential.
Sure, your QOL might be similar while working. But in the US, you can retire by 45 on a FAANG salary (even with a family!). That's virtually impossible on the entire continent of Europe as a salaryman.
I'm sorry but at this point, I cannot. But we're having market level salaries for Barcelona and the low salary/high prices you mention is simply not true. Barcelona and Spain in general has a better salary/cost of living ratio compared to northern Europe (Sweden specifically, since I'm from there but now living in Barcelona)
Northern Europe has some of the highest salaries in Europe, so that's not a good comparison. Looking from different resources online, it seems the average is around 60k. Spain, for example, has the average of being around 40k and Poland around 30k.
Western Europe has something called income equality, you should try it some time. Or well, more or it.
A cashier in Sweden earns a very liveable wage, quite close to the average wage, while a programmer earns maybe 75% more than that, if not twice as much. That's already a significant difference. I'm a student and get 1200€ a month (not only is university free, we also get paid to study). With this, I have my own apartment with my own kitchen and all and am still able to save 500 a month. When I start working and get an average salary (the starting salary for programmers is about the same as the average salary for the entire population), I will spend a bit more, but still probably have 1-1.5k€ left every month. That is a lot. Then after some years, that would increase by a thousand or so. Why should I expect more money than that? I don't deserve more than that.
Housing is expensive here too, but not nearly as bad as in the US, so we simply don't need as high salaries. In Sweden, things like preschools are also heavily subsidized and university completely free, which is beneficial if you have children.
Those salaries are only common in a few areas with an outrageously high cost of living. In the rest of the country, the salaries aren't much higher than the ones in Europe.
I make $42K in Sweden (not in IT), and it's comfortably high middle class. My wife doesn't even work full time and it's still enough for us to live comfortably within our means (own a house, two cars, one kid, etc.)
If I'd been making $60K my wife could stop working. At $80K she wouldn't have to work and we'd still be moving into "new BMW every three years" kind of money.
$80K goes a lot further in Europe than it does in the US.
Comparing salaries isn't easy. Europeans get more vacation, more sick days, other (better?) Health care, retirement funds, unemployment insurance ... also they eventually pay less rent etc.
I can only talk about Hungary. SWE salaries doubled in the past couple of years. Entry level job salaries went from around 1000 EUR to 2000 EUR, but they are way less than in Germany
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