I'd say it depends on the EU markets. I have the feeling that IT professionals from Eastern Europe (I'm from there) are a lot better paid, comparatively speaking, to IT professionals from many other Western countries (with the focus on "comparatively").
I've heard from a lot of my colleagues that they couldn't afford to have the same lifestyle in an Western capital city with equivalent IT salaries. I know I wouldn't be able to rent in downtown Amsterdam, Paris or Milano with my equivalent IT earnings were I to live in those cities the same way I now do in Bucharest.
>I'd say it depends on the EU markets. I have the feeling that IT professionals from Eastern Europe (I'm from there) are a lot better paid, comparatively speaking, to IT professionals from many other Western countries (with the focus on "comparatively").
It's true. Unless you work for a FAANG, or some Fin-Tech or a unicorn flush with cash, dev wages in Western EU are not higher than Eastern EU anymore.
I know devs in Poland and Romania making way more than me and some friends do in Austria/France/Belgium.
It's because of huge amount of outsourcing from US companies moving directly to Eastern EU, pushing the wages higher than what Western EU based companies can offer locally, coupled with the higher taxes in the Western countries, meaning devs in the West taking home lower wages than their counterparts in the East.
Someone here said it well, but I don't have the original post to quote anymore: {a cleaner in Sweden makes way more than a cleaner in Poland, but a dev in Poland can end up making as much or more than a dev in Sweden}. That's whack but that's the reality of supply and demand caused by the bleed from the US tech boom to certain regions.
I wouldn't be able to rent - or buy - in Amsterdam either even though I was born there and lived there for half my life. The prices there are simply insane. It's ok with me because I wouldn't want to either but between AirBNB, businesses using residential real estate as fancy offices (half the inner circle of the canals is like that now), the crime and the tourists you probably would have to pay me to live in Amsterdam.
Having visited Amsterdam, but mostly the tourist bits, I'm curious: where do reasonably paid tech professionals live in that city? Can you give me some examples of areas to look up?
I've heard from a lot of my colleagues that they couldn't afford to have the same lifestyle in an Western capital city with equivalent IT salaries. I know I wouldn't be able to rent in downtown Amsterdam, Paris or Milano with my equivalent IT earnings were I to live in those cities the same way I now do in Bucharest.