I did quite a lot of research on salaries in the London area 2 years ago.  Starting wage for a programmer out of school was around 3-3.5K€ per month.  Some places paid up to 4K per month (90th percentile).  25th% percentile was 2.5K€ per month.  I have heard that starting wages have gone up a bit in the last few years.  Your numbers for the UK are more typical outside of London, though.<p>Of course nothing like Bay area salaries, even though London is ridiculously expensive.  Some Googling seems to indicate that the cost of living in SF is about 25% higher than London, so real earnings are quite a bit higher there for programmers it seems.