UK vs US salaries

[Star555]

Perhaps a naive question, but why are US salaries so significantly higher (often 2x) than UK salaries for the same jobs, e.g. in science and technology? I know that UK gets NHS and more holiday time and maternity leave than the US, but can that really make such a big salary difference? I also know that private (fee-paying) uni education is insanely expensive in US (state unis are much cheaper), but in UK the cost of fee-paying schools for children up to Year 13 isn't exactly cheap either!

For those of you who moved to/from the US by choice, was the increase/decrease in salary among your main incentives/concerns? Or did salary not play a big role for you? (Perhaps other factors like being near family were more important.)

I know Westchester very well and can offer information about specific towns and school districts.

Question for everyone. Did you all move because your DH had a career opportunity? I feel for the first time that we are facing a decision over which I have little insight to. It's horribly unnerving for me. I can't work out if that's because I don't want to go or if it's normal to feel so unsure.

Not really - we moved because we wanted to move abroad and our options were the US or New Zealand, and a job came up in the US first.

It was still a tough decision to actually make, even though I knew I really wanted to go. I had to do that whole 'face the fear and do it anyway' thing. In my case, the fear was of the unknown.

The job has been great. DH started as a project manager and is now a company president. The move was totally worth it for us. But my family were already US citizens so we had a lot more freedom if anything went wrong with the job.

@StepawayfromtheBiscuittin yes, we both decided to live abroad for a while and both applied for jobs, first good one offered was to him in the US. He was on a H1B, because he was newly hired by an American company. The spousal visa H4 does not allow you to work (or even in some cases volunteer). His contract stipulated they would apply and pay for Green Cards for the whole family after he’d been with them for a year it the process took a good 18months so finally after 2.5 years I was able to work, and a green card allows you to do any job - added security that if he lost his job we could stay in the States until he found a new one

Employment laws are very different in the US. Companies do not have to give you days off or accommodate illness. They can hire and fire at will and you won't get compensation. That risk is what also pushes the salaries up.

May I ask what type of work you do that allows 5 weeks holiday?

A lot of tech companies are moving or have moved towards the unlimited PTO model

Lots of tech and banking is 5 weeks+ or unlimited vacation days. I work in non-profit and have 24 days vacation and 3 personal days per year, with sick days and National
Holidays on top of that.

As somebody who has talked internally about a potential move to the US, this logic of doubling your UK salary as a good barometer has surprised me.

I'd expect it to the 1.5 times your UK salary to wb comparable, maybe I'm deluded?!

Do you really need double your UK salary?!

It depends on the cost of living where you are now vs. the COL of where you would be moving to. London to Omaha would be a lot less than Manchester to NYC.

Do you realize this thread is almost a year old?

Yes I do realise it's a year old, does that matter?

I'd be moving from Birmingham UK to Detroit Michigan if that helps give a better answer please?

Detroit, or it's suburbs won't need the same salary as NYC or California.

This may help. You'll have to look at flat rental prices online, but housing in Detroit tends to be pretty cheap.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Detroit#:~:text=A%20family%20of%20four%20estimated,costs%20are%201%2C112.8%24%20without%20rent.