It is hard to compare European salaries to their US counterpart. You have to take account they have much less holidays on average, you have also some sort of &quot;free healthcare&quot; that is not tied to your job, a state pension plan, access to some cheap higher level education for your children.<p>In my country, between what is paid by the employer and what I actually get there is a factor of 2 to pay for all the &quot;free&quot; service aforementioned.