Extremely low? Not as high as SF, sure, but easily top 5% for the country after a few years experience. Salary aside, many people find life a lot more enjoyable here. I know plenty of people who've worked for a period in the US and come back, as well as myself having done a stint for a US company for a while.
US corporate working culture is rather different to here. Here, if you don't take 4+ weeks holiday, your manager will have a word with you for working too much. Complaining about being back at work after a holiday is expected. At the end of the day, you log off and go home, and you don't think about work again until the next morning except in exceptional cases. Everyone knows and accepts that work is work, not the point of your life. 3PM Friday drinks is still a part of the culture in many companies, as is knocking off early on a nice day and going to the pub.
Obviously it's not like this in every job (particularly low salary or menial), but every job I and most of my acquaintances have had has been vaguely like this.
Then of course there's safety, environment, toxic politics, healthcare, etc. plus generally just liking what you're familiar with. I love the USA, but there are things that are hard to get used to, like car-only suburbs, jaywalking laws, beaches that close at night or are privately owned, rules against outdoor drinking...
I also find UK tech has less of an ageism problem than the USA. People sometimes return here after they start to find their age is causing problems finding work in the US.
> US corporate working culture is rather different to here. Here, if you don't take 4+ weeks holiday, your manager will have a word with you for working too much. Complaining about being back at work after a holiday is expected. At the end of the day, you log off and go home, and you don't think about work again until the next morning except in exceptional cases. Everyone knows and accepts that work is work, not the point of your life. 3PM Friday drinks is still a part of the culture in many companies, as is knocking off early on a nice day and going to the pub.
This is a classic view in London's legal industry. In truth, solicitors in London work as hard as New York corporate lawyers and earn 25%-33% of the pay. Yes, they do tend to take more vacation days and don't have to pay for health insurance, but the health insurance component is made up for taxes and otherwise vacation days are about the only difference.
For me, holiday days are a BIG deal. If company policy allows me to take 6 weeks off without people getting upset, I would happily take a 2/3rd pay cut over the same with 2 weeks off. Of course, if the company allows unpaid leave that's fine, but US companies tend to get bothered if you actually take decent amounts of time off (even in the UK).
US corporate working culture is rather different to here. Here, if you don't take 4+ weeks holiday, your manager will have a word with you for working too much. Complaining about being back at work after a holiday is expected. At the end of the day, you log off and go home, and you don't think about work again until the next morning except in exceptional cases. Everyone knows and accepts that work is work, not the point of your life. 3PM Friday drinks is still a part of the culture in many companies, as is knocking off early on a nice day and going to the pub.
Obviously it's not like this in every job (particularly low salary or menial), but every job I and most of my acquaintances have had has been vaguely like this.
Then of course there's safety, environment, toxic politics, healthcare, etc. plus generally just liking what you're familiar with. I love the USA, but there are things that are hard to get used to, like car-only suburbs, jaywalking laws, beaches that close at night or are privately owned, rules against outdoor drinking...
I also find UK tech has less of an ageism problem than the USA. People sometimes return here after they start to find their age is causing problems finding work in the US.