Where are those super salaries in excess of 200k USD coming from in the US and do such opportunities exist in Europe?

[walkbyfaithnotbysight]

@ericn All that I can add to this talk is that one of my friends worked in a startup in London as a dev team lead, and startup was bought by the unicorn. He left, but if he stayed, he'd be multi-millionaire now. So, that's one way to earn a lot.

Otherwise, even friend who has a one-man business and works for himself, earns measly 50-70k and only hopes to break 100k someday. (that's a lot for my country, though)

Another friend works in Switzerland. There, salaries from 5k EUR and up are pretty common. In IT, they can be 10k EUR .

 

[iamunworthy]

@ericn OP , are you talking about strictly gross salary or total compensation package ?

If I take a look at the average junior in my company (corporate banking) they all make at least 80k gross right out of the gate if you look at total compensation package.

 

[ericn]

@iamunworthy I am fine talking about the total compensation package. I know these can get fairly elaborate at various companies (e.g. company car lease, fuel vouchers...).

 

[zabu]

@ericn i would consider those benefits tbh not TC. Meh

 

[synthman]

@zabu It's easily convertible to monetary value. I think it's fair to put it into the compensation bracket. Benefits is more monetarily intangible, like time off, or working culture IMO.

 

[ladyredlover]

@ericn

• Entrepreneur should be no. 1 on the list. It's very doable to make hundreds of thousands. Even on your own. You can be an executive coach, programmer or specialist to a niche or for example run a webshop.
• In most Western European countries you can add 30% to the wages you see for social benefits that employers pay. Pensions, healthcare, benefits, education are mostly covered. You need millions less to FatFire in NW Europe.
• Engineers can get into the 150k range as well. At companies like Shell.
• Traders and investment bankers make decent money too. Especially in London, but I know a few in The Netherlands who fit the 150k range.
• University professors can make 150k.
• Remember FAANG companies don't pay average wages. They are the five best paying companies in the world and not normal in the US either.
• Also remember quality of life is much, much better in Western Europe. In The Netherlands people on average work 29 hours a week. Average Travel time to work is less than half of that in the US. You can go anywhere in a city by bike on special bike lanes and there are very few poor and homeless people which is great for a society.
• And.. we've forgotten about Switzerland and Luxembourg in their entirety. The average wage in Zurich is 90.000 euro which probably means that the top 25% of people living there all make 200k+