A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France
Regarding French salaries again : yes they are lower than elsewhere but with some exceptions, French employers are not the problem : they do pay the same price for you as in other European countries, more or less ! The difference is that your average engineer in France costs them around 1.5-2.5 times the total take home pay, because of high, compulsory labor taxes.<p>In exchange, employees get as standard :<p>* a top notch, virtually free healthcare system with no concept of exclusions or &quot;pre-conditions&quot;<p>* Usually no student loans to repay because their higher education was free, unless they went for a private business&#x2F;engineering school but that&#x27;s still an order of magnitude cheaper than a US university.<p>* a comfortable (unsustainable ?) state pension later on.<p>* unemployment insurance that covers around 70% pay for months.<p>* 5 weeks holiday + public holidays<p>* Non San Francisco &#x2F; London &#x2F; NYC renting costs (although Paris is quite bad by French standards, and much worse than Berlin)<p>If you&#x27;re US-based, think about your monthly budget and what goes towards healthcare&#x2F;co-pay, student loans, kids college fund, 401k, and building an emergency fund in case you get laid off &#x2F; severely ill. None of that is strictly required in France (although some of it is available as extra private coverage, and a good idea)<p>This is why cross-border salary comparisons are pointless, it&#x27;s really apples &amp; oranges.<p>I&#x27;m French and living in London, and I&#x27;d personally rather have the freedom to have a higher take-home pay and contribute towards the above items myself as I see fit. But I&#x27;m not fooling myself thinking that because my take-home pay is twice as high each month, the math is as simple as that. I know that I&#x27;m so much more on my own here than at home...