Salaries in US

[Lushmetender]

I manage a couple of staff in the US and the salaries are much better than mine. My boss says it’s because of the health insurance they need to take out. Is that your experience?

yep.
life is generally more expensive and health insurance and other health costs are high (sometimes it's cheaper to pay privately than using insurance)

Nope, health insurance is generally paid for by the company. We moved to the US and found that salaries were at least 20% better than the UK across the board. (DH went from £27k to $67k doing exactly the same job)

We also noticed a 20% reduction in the cost of living.

It's very dependent on location. Cost of living in NY, SF or Boston is much higher in say Mississippi or Arkansas. Salaries are commensurate.

In general though professional salaries are higher in the US.

Whereabouts in the US are they?

We pay $500 a month for health insurance for the 3 of us. DH’s company pays the rest.

It’s also the current exchange rate, the pound is very weak at the moment so dollars are simply worth more. Someone who is earning $65,000 gets roughly £52,000 at today’s exchange rate. However, a few years ago when the exchange rate was 2:1 the same salary would have only been worth £32,500. The US employee hasn’t had a massive pay bump and the currency fluctuations are irrelevant to them as they pay all of their bills in USD.