Why are salaries in Europe so much lower than in the US?

Electric Sheep

Samson Tasty Dingo wrote: »

You mean by the same health screening laboratories that did such an accurate and timely job with the cervical smear tests?

Funny how the only issue was in Ireland.

fortwilliam

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Everything is so much cheaper in America, too. You can get 10 chicken nuggets at Burger King for $1. 10 chicken nuggets for $1.

10 F*CKING NUGGETS FOR €0.89!

It's really not..
I'm living here in the US and the prices are genuinely shocking.
Simple grocery shopping is double the prices at home.

Rent/Travel/Food.... All terribly expensive.

If you want to see what a homelessness crisis is, you should see the cities here.
Thousands of people shuffling around with all their worldly possessions in a shopping trolley or a backpack.

Disoriented people with clear signs of mental instability, drug use and malnutrition sitting on street corners with a cardboard sign begging for money.
People who don't know where or who they are talking to people who are not there...

Having said that, if you are lucky enough to be earning good money with health cover Etc, it can be a great place to live.

Franz Von Peppercorn

fortwilliam wrote: »

It's really not..
I'm living here in the US and the prices are genuinely shocking.
Simple grocery shopping is double the prices at home.

Rent/Travel/Food.... All terribly expensive.

Clothing an electronics are cheaper.

Manic Moran

I'm living here in the US and the prices are genuinely shocking.
Simple grocery shopping is double the prices at home.

Rent/Travel/Food.... All terribly expensive.

I'm going to assume that you are in the SF Bay Area, from your description. SF is not representative of the nation.
Examples. Emeryville (The SF Amtrak station) to Sacramento, the State capitol, is almost exactly the same distance as Dublin to Waterford. The California ticket is a $52 return, whilst IR charges $36. On the other hand, Amtrak charges $24 to get me from my current city of San Antonio to Austin, my State capitol, and back, also almost exactly the same distance.

If you want to do it by car, I see a Toyota Corolla is about 15% cheaper to buy in San Francisco than Ireland after tax, I'll assume about $400/year to register (Based on what CA's been charging me for my cars) and you will get about 45-50km for $4 of gas or so. And you'll have a $5 toll on the Bay Bridge going home. Here in Texas, the registration is $50/year, and your $4 will get you some 80km. No toll between here and Austin. What would it cost you to own a Corolla in Ireland, and then drive to Waterford? I'll wager more than in either California or Texas.

And if you want a shock on groceries, compare Safeway prices in SF with HEB prices in Texas. Sure, a few things are cheaper in SF, avocados I think were a case in point (and both States are likely better quality than in Ireland), but the beef can be as low as a third less, for some unknown reason, of what I was paying in San Francisco. Before we moved out of SF, wife and I did a reconnaissance, which included the local markets for a price comparison. She was stunned. Both seem to compare favourably to Irish prices. Tesco.ie's advertising minced beef at about EUR7/kg, so about $3.5/lb. Both Safeway and HEB are advertising it as under $3/lb. Those avocados? $1.25 or so right now for both SF and HEB large avocados. Tesco, about $2

Your dollar can go a very long way in this country.

Electric Sheep

Manic Moran wrote: »

I'm going to assume that you are in the SF Bay Area, from your description. SF is not representative of the nation.
Examples. Emeryville (The SF Amtrak station) to Sacramento, the State capitol, is almost exactly the same distance as Dublin to Waterford. The California ticket is a $52 return, whilst IR charges $36. On the other hand, Amtrak charges $24 to get me from my current city of San Antonio to Austin, my State capitol, and back, also almost exactly the same distance.

If you want to do it by car, I see a Toyota Corolla is about 15% cheaper to buy in San Francisco than Ireland after tax, I'll assume about $400/year to register (Based on what CA's been charging me for my cars) and you will get about 45-50km for $4 of gas or so. And you'll have a $5 toll on the Bay Bridge going home. Here in Texas, the registration is $50/year, and your $4 will get you some 80km. No toll between here and Austin. What would it cost you to own a Corolla in Ireland, and then drive to Waterford? I'll wager more than in either California or Texas.

And if you want a shock on groceries, compare Safeway prices in SF with HEB prices in Texas. Sure, a few things are cheaper in SF, avocados I think were a case in point (and both States are likely better quality than in Ireland), but the beef can be as low as a third less, for some unknown reason, of what I was paying in San Francisco. Before we moved out of SF, wife and I did a reconnaissance, which included the local markets for a price comparison. She was stunned. Both seem to compare favourably to Irish prices. Tesco.ie's advertising minced beef at about EUR7/kg, so about $3.5/lb. Both Safeway and HEB are advertising it as under $3/lb.

Your dollar can go a very long way in this country.

As you said, it's regional. I am always amazed at how very cheap produce is in Irish supermarkets - about 1/3 of what we pay here in Boston. Can't say about meat, as I don't buy it.

Let's not even start on the property tax...

But other things like petrol, heat and hot water are much cheaper, so it's swings and roundabouts I guess.

Electric Sheep

Wanderer78 wrote: »

What if you don't have a choice of working for 'decent organisations'?

Then you should move to Ireland.

FixdePitchmark

MightyMunster wrote: »

Working with a few American multinationals at the engineering and automation Graduates hired in USA are starting on 60k USD plus, same jobs here starting on around 30-35Euro. Was surprised at how much they're getting in the US.

I wonder does the lower proportion of 3rd level qualified candidates drive up the wages

That is great starting money.

How do you find their quality ?

fortwilliam

Manic Moran wrote: »

I'm going to assume that you are in the SF Bay Area,
Your dollar can go a very long way in this country.

I'm in Denver CO.

Manic Moran

fortwilliam wrote: »

I'm in Denver CO.

Damn. It must have changed since last I was there.

Wanderer78

Electric Sheep wrote:

Then you should move to Ireland.

What if you don't have the money, or access to the money, to move towns, let alone countries?

Wompa1

Electric Sheep wrote: »

Funny how the only issue was in Ireland.

I've been working in healthcare in the US for about 7 years. Reality is, the same thing could happen in the US and probably did since it was a US lab and it would never make the news. Big private healthcare vs public healthcare but I'm sure you know that....

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I see that quoted here a lot, but it is not true. I live in the US and have 30 days paid time off, in addition to public holidays. You negotiate these things with your employer before taking a position. Most decent jobs give more than 10 days

I worked for a Fortune 15 company who I cleverly negotiated up my time off with. They pulled the rug out from under me, since the days off were not part of the contract of employment and were on a specific benefits agreement, they ended up putting me down in their retail division which unbeknownst to me took away my rights to all paid holidays. I ended up getting my extra PTO days but lost all holidays.

The standard in the US is 10 days because more people in the US do not work in a decent job. It's a country in which working for Costco or the Container Store is the holy grail for most people who couldn't afford college or quite rightly refused to subject themselves to the armed forces in order to afford an education. My wife went to three different Universities here, my brother in law and father in law went to Community College. Community College is merely a stepping stone for many highly skilled professions like Architecture, Medicine etc.

764dak

In the US you have to do a whole bachelor's degree before you can study law or medicine.

Wompa1

I have now spent close to 10 years of my life in the US. I earn about 4 times what I was making in Ireland. For me it's luck more than anything, I happened to specialize in something that not a lot of people do. I could move to London and make about half of what I make here. I am earning much more than most people living here too though. I'm pretty aware of that. I'm the exception, not the rule.

I think the obvious reason for the difference in pay is because US companies have less regulations imposed on them. I'm not saying that as in, Ireland sucks because it makes doing business more difficult. I think Ireland is closer to being on the right side but Ireland should have even more regulations.

US companies make a lot of money by cutting corners. Look at the food quality standards here. TV companies and ISPs are able to corner the market and screw their customers. What the automotive industry has been up to here is not far off the subprime mortgage sh1t from 2008...there's countless examples. So these companies have a clear road to go down to make as much money as possible and in turn can actually make more or just pay less to the Government by employing more people and/or paying more.

There are all kinds of incentives to get tax back by putting a lot of the money they make back into the business e.g. writing off business expenses, hiring a certain number of veterans, charitable donations etc. They also can claim the salary they pay to their employees in their taxes as an expense, including pay to contractors. Leaving them really only paying things like payroll tax and benefits. Some of the really large organizations actually get money from the Government each year and pay no tax.

There's a reason why they cut private pensions, why there is a constant threat to social security in the US. Why some states are trying to restrict welfare even more. Why this tax year the number of deductions for middle incomers fell. The Government and the companies are trying to eliminate the few things they do actually pay into the coffers for.

It's a pretty lopsided place and it's only getting worse.

Wanderer78

Wompa1 wrote: »

....It's a pretty lopsided place and it's only getting worse.

load a country up with weapons, promote their use and ownership, what could go wrong!!!!!