Question from someone not living in the US:
How come you guys have such high salaries compared to ROW? Is the cost of life that much higher than other countries, or is your income simply taxed less / companies have generally more money to spend on employees?
I am currently working in one of the highest paying (if not the highest) consultancy firms in my country, and my salary is probably lower than your minimum wage. It's actually something that pisses me off more than it should when I think about it.
There is a geographic disparity in how tech workers are valued. Might consider working remote for a US company that'll bring your wage up above what your local tech economy will provide for.
As a sibling comment points out, health insurance and child care consume quite a bit of a wage in the US (our employer portion is $20k/year alone for a family of four; childcare is easily $1k/per child/per month for 2 days a week of care). My wife is giving birth tomorrow to our second child, and we're prepared for a bill anywhere between $5k-10k all-in, even with a quality insurance plan at my company.
> [You]Might consider working remote for a US company that'll bring your wage up...
How do you even get to do that ? Most of the time companies that advertise 'remote' mean 'we need a remote worker who resides in the US'
The below resources come to mind as places to start (no affiliation).
https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job
Also, an ongoing salary survey document for your use in ensuring you're not getting undervalued: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a1Df6dg2Pby1UoNlZU2l...