I make 55k per year and pocket about 41k, 14k goes to taxes. To be fair I'm a 26uy old sysadmin, but my understanding of the US is that this would be low tier,

I make 55k per year and pocket about 41k, 14k goes to taxes. To be fair I'm a 26uy old sysadmin, but my understanding of the US is that this would be low tier, whereas in Sweden this is quite great, specially considering my age. I get 5 paid weeks, 2 or 3 unpaid. Considering our free healthcare is shit unless you're about to die or get rendered useless I'd say there's a difference. I do understand why though, American IT companies automatically have a reach of 350M people without a fuzz, the biggest you can go in Europe (in one country) is 80m speaking the same language. What I mean is, an American developers code is more likely to be used by more people, generating more profit, driving wages up. We need to regulate English proficiency in the EU (as in school wise or get fined a couple billions) to be able to get to the level you're already at. EDIT: my employer effectively pays 77k for me with the "employers tax" too, so 77-41=36 almost 50% is taxed away, so that skews the numbers a bit more.