Hi,

From last few days iam comparing the salaries between US, UK and in Germany.

1. My expectation is :There is no much difference if you have real good 4-5 yrs of Experience. (in all tech fields) (considering holidays and all)

2.There are many in this forum those who are having morethan 4 yrs of Exp. Pls share your exp in salary matters so that other have a view about their future.

3. In US with 4-5 yrs of exp people get around 80-120k per yr and in UK with 4-5 yrs of exp around 60-80k per yr (this info is from my friends. may be you have others fig).

Pls share your experiences, that is very very useful for those who ae having little exp in Job market (like me)

Thank you in advance
srinivas

Srinivas ,around how much u r getting in ur new job in nürenberg?

I have total 1 year of xp in germany but also dont know how much to quote the expected salary in resume. Right now im putting aroung 40k is this ok after one year xp(in germany)?

Iam in Automotive field with 2 yrs of exp getting around 43k.

3. In US with 4-5 yrs of exp people get around 80-120k per yr and in UK with 4-5 yrs of exp around 60-80k per yr (this info is from my friends. may be you have others fig).

In which currency are those figures ? in US dollars ?

In West Germany you can expect approx. 55-60k Euros with 4-5 years of good experience.. (This also depends on the city, size of the company, your field of expertise.. etc.. I am just trying to give a rough idea..)

German Computer Magazine c't publishes each year nice detailed Surveys regarding this issue. I googled and found the latest one for you. I hope you can read German.

http://www.heise.de/ct/08/06/104/

What you also need to consider when you compare the salaries of Germany with "hard" Capitalist Countries like US or UK is the fact that you get normally 6 weeks of paid vacation in Germany. I am not sure but I guess in US, it is normally 2 weeks. As I lately saw in a job advertisement of google the job conditions where they explain the "benefits of working at Google", I was quite surprised. They try to advertise their company with stuff like:
- Medical insurance, dental insurance
- After 6th year 25 days of holiday.(In first 3 years only 15 days !! )
- Parental/Maternity Leave etc.

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=benefits.html

Gee.. You get those in US only if you work for Google.. here in Germany you get those even if you work as a cleaner. I have 30 workdays of holiday in Germany from my very first day at work and I should be attracted to those conditions at Google.. ??? (which is supposedly offering one of the best conditions in US..)
That must be a joke.. I dont even want to imagine what an average US Company might be offering regarding paid vacations, medical insurance, rental plan and parental/maternity leaves..


Lacrima

Hi Sinu,

I think, the figure for US also not correct. As far as I know, the people is earning 50-80K who has good experience and education background. Some people could make 120k but this is not from IT technical field. The people is earning this amount from especially sales, marketing and IT contractor.

what you said about UK till 80k. Believe me, this is not even normal in UK. Look at different job sites for UK then you can easily see the figure.

If someone start with 40k or 50k then how is it possible to make it double with in 5 years. This is simply not possible if you are in a same company for 5 years. If you change the company then this is not possible to have 100% increment.

I think, someone can put the figures who has close friends in UK, USA.

Some real time figures. Source : My cousins/frineds in the US UK & DE

US:
4-5 Experience 50k-80K
One of my cousins get 135k 10yrs exp.

UK:
4-5 35-45k
6-10 45-65 K

DE:
4-5 40K 50K
5-10 50k - 70k

Above info is based on following assumptions:
-IT Field
-Permanent jobs and not freelancing/contracting
-Not manager scales,but Team Leads included.

Does your data reflects the same?

@ Vah,

Good piece of information.

For DE: You say Managers not included between 50 to 70K Euros

Any idea on how much a Manager could expect between 10 & 12 years of experience ??
I guess there are two types of contracts Tariffliche & Außertariff.

Hi skirizki,

It depends what type of manager you are talking about ?

Is it sales ? technical ?
If it technical then are you talking SAP, Cisco or any programming field.

Salay also varied in which industry you are working for ? It it a small company or big company ?

@Vah,

Thanks to mention the real figure. Sometimes people are dreaming without knowing the reality.

in our discussions we didnt covered >=85K Euros.
is it really possible in Germany.
if yes in which field and for which status of work?

@jamnazar
do you have above 10 yrs of exp?

Just my experience guys,

worked in US after 5 years of expeirence @ 100kUSD. In US, consulting or full time does not matter much. If you are lucky, u might be in a firm with good stock options and thats how some of my friends made big bucks - But thats luck.
Low tax environment in US. Taxes are 20-25 % or 15% or lower when you have family. Also, buying a house is easy and cheap.
family life is good, but if you are out of job - u r in deep shit - no medical insurance and no support netowork.

spent some time in UK
5-10 year experience would fetch one 50-70k pounds. Taxes are crazy as hell. Consulting is a good option to manage taxes and make some money. In the long term, housing is extremely expensive and what you get for what you spend is quite shitty. However, if you can evolve into business, the economy is vibrant, dynamic and lots of opportunities. People with fish and chips have even made it big. In UK, go for consulting and business.
family life is stressful due to work loads, but atleast u can get medical services for some what free cost.

worked few years in germany
5-10 years experience would give you 60-80k euros py. consulting is a great option if you can. full time jobs are not so many for foreigners / non german speakers. also, the glass ceiling is everywhere. taxes are high as hell. however, there are ways to optimize. consulting is good since most germans like full time / non moving jobs and foreigners like people from uk are much more flexible on hours and work load. housing is affordable. running a business is a big hassle and hackling by beureucrats is a continous pain. the best part of german is its high quality of engineering firms with world class products.
family life is great and medical services are very good. overall satisfaction level is high - except that learning german is a bit of a pain.

overall, US, Germany and UK have their flavors of work and family life. Due to reversal of dollars fortunes in the last six years, people have been very successful in dollar terms in UK / Germany.

However, I think US economy and competitiveness will bounce back.

Apart from this India and CHina are rising starts and it is a matter of time before brain drain has reverse trend for these two tiger economies.

Hi Jamnazar,

Thanks for your analysis. Could you please tell me in which field you are working ? Are you doing consulting job or permanent job ? is it possible to earn 85k+ from permanent job in germany ?

with 10 years experience, how much someone can earn (highest) in USA (in software and network field)?

Hi!

i am in wireless engineering. in between jobs / will start a new role and permanent. Yes, high salaries are around but very competitive. depends on skill set and the need for these skills at the time.

you asked a very general question about networking and software. there are experts and there are other experts. To be very frank, i have seen people with high school degrees and a short diploma in c++ or cisco ccnp calling themselves IT / SW engineers. There was time when anyone with some basic sw skills could find work in US(Y2K testing!!), but these kinds of jobs have already moved out to india etc. You could be CS graduate from MIT or Caltech and would wind up at a Google and be the next millionaire. People with exceptional skills / IQ have unlimited opportunities in US due to an environment of venture capital investing in small companies, risk taking attitudes and strong research collaboation between the universities and industry. In places likegermany such small entreprenaural firms are hard to survive and mostly R&D is affordable by only big firms. So, you do not see too many SAPs coming out of mainland Europe. Also, an important aspect is that in tech business, being chinese / indian etc is no problem. Silicon valley looks like banglore - there are so many asian engineers in high tech.

Best bet anywhere is to invest in yourself. Keep learning and improving - money will follow. There is always room at the top.