US vs UK taxes etc

[Scougar]

So a post in another group got me thinking about this. Part of America was getting away from excessive taxes etc, so I thought I would paste the percentage breakdown of my own for an 40 hour work week. For reference I do corporate software development.

69% NET (Take home)
17% Taxes (Federal, Social, Medicare*1, State)
7% Benefits (Health Insurance, Eye care, Dental plan, Life insurance)
5% Retirement*2 (401K)

Notes:
*1 - I don't use medicare but pay into it.
*2 - This could easily be higher, but I'm the main money earner, so it goes on other things like kiddo's/vacations.

Curious on how the UK stacks up percentage wise

 

[Scougar]

An 80 hour week? No thanks.

How much do you deduct from your salary to cover healthcare deductibles?

Scotland's tax rates are listed here. On top of that we have National Insurance. Details are here.

Interesting breakdown. I got similar calculations for being based in Louisiana. I have considered emigrating a number of times but the widespread expectation of...
...soured the deal.

/facepalm. SORRY!! 40 hours. I looked at my two week paychecks, and didn't engage my brain. lol. Sorry.

I do however often do a lot of support work that might take me to 60 hours on occasion.(for zero extra pay)

 

[Scougar]

Madness, you've essentially just taken a 33-50%(maths brain no workey) pay cut.

Lol.

1) doubling my hours brain fart yes. 50%. I only have myself to blame LMAO.
2) unpaid overtime: this is normal, no matter the company in software development. It sucks being salaried over here for this reason, but the base pay is decent.

 

[Scougar]

Above 100k dollars, but since we file joint (married), that is a massive benefit for taxes. Filing individually would be massive hit.

I could do things like put pre-tax money against other health expenses, but its just a hassle for a small impact.

So far based on 1 feedback, it seems like it works out fairly similar overall. Less tax, but take a hit on healthcare over here.

 

[Scougar]

@Quartz in the UK in Plymouth (lower wage area) I was getting sub £28kish/$38k a year. Over in the US in higher pay area, its well over £70/$100k, if you wanted to compare.

I did previously have a lesser paid role, and also worked Uber that added on 21ish hours a week to my work life.

Apart from fuel it is more expensive here, (in this area) as much as we like to think its cheaper. Think Sussex costs for something comparable.

As a naive 10 year younger person I thought I would be rolling in dough when I moved. It's taken me and my wife about 8 years to get us where it doesn't really matter too much what we buy. I think this is partly because of the housing bubble and cost of property and the necessity to have 2 cars.

I don't even know how people survive below the $50k line here.

 

[Scougar]

Weren't we all at one time or another?

How are you finding the lack of holidays? Here, of course, it's at least 23 days.

Weirdly not too bad. I got 3 weeks from the get go, so it was not too much of a shock from 6 weeks government job.

 

[Scougar]

Taxes seem to be broadly similar between the US and UK, I guess US employees tend to have less holiday time and work longer hours though have better pay (or at least skilled and professional workers do).

If you've got a state with no state income taxes and/or you have plenty of deductions to make then I guess maybe the US can be better. Cost of living can be much lower (aside from medical stuff) and you can get more bang for your buck in terms of housing/land in rural areas.

Nah, it's effectively (up to a) 33% pay cut in any given week. (assuming he doesn't get a bonus at the end of the year). He said he works up to 60 hours when contracted for 40.

It's certainly something to mention at the end of the year when asking for a raise!

Absolutely spot on about housing. Rural areas (outside of covid times) are bang for buck, but you'll need to travel for work. I live in an area that is probably a third to twice as expensive per property. I have a townhouse for the same price as I could by a gorgeous farmhouse in the sticks. Moving soon to take advantage of the market boom.

Bonus: Yes, I do, and didn't include it in the figures. Overtime is pretty much expected. My code/services front the entire company, so if there is an issue, even if it isn't our stuff... I often get called. It's been getting less and less thankfully due to work we have done, but it's always the archaic systems keeping us back, or somebody doing something silly like updating certificates without informing us.

I will certainly be pushing for a bigger position soon, since I'm the sole dev in my team now. Don't get too worked up about the overtime, it's the same everywhere. I choose a corporate job with health stuff mainly because it's stable and my wife has some medical needs.

 

[Scougar]

Medical cover is a PITA. My wife had a replacement disk in her neck, and the procedure was in excess of 80k. There was a bill for a third party service not put in by the surgeon which left us on the hook for 10K rather than only 1.5k (deductible). Stuff like this shouldn't happen, but that's insurance.

I'm actually having a surgery myself next month that I've put off for 9ish years. Co-pay's to specialist are $50 each time, although the surgery will hopefully be fully covered.

 

[Scougar]

It's always worth logging/documenting the extra work you've done though, and/or even sending a weekly or monthly summary to your manager or higher-ups, have tangible stuff to cite when it comes to asking for more $$$.

I am foolish for not doing this. Other 'smart' people keep log books of such things, and any redeeming work to bring up in reviews as evidence.

 

[Scougar]

I work in software development and emigrated to the USA (from the UK) close to 10 years ago. Suffice to say, I'm making significantly more money in the USA than I ever could in the UK (perhaps outside of working in London for a US tech firm like Google or Facebook), even if I went into software contracting in the UK, which I was contemplating had I not emigrated. Market value for my skillset is simply much greater in the USA than pretty-much anywhere else in the world, including the UK. It may not be like this forever, so I'm making hay while the sun is (still) shining.

I work for a legal services firm now, but used to work for a multi-billion dollar etailer (not as big as amazon LOL). The skillsets are 100% more in demand here. It is hard to NOT find work here tbh in this field. My accent definitely helps lol.

I'm a little tied to this area I'm in so can't go to NYC or Silicon Valley to get the big bucks. I need to set my goals a bit higher and become team lead. Then my wife won't need to work so she can focus on schooling herself and doing things she loves

 

[Scougar]

Well...I am definitely not getting over $200k lol. That would be nice for sure though lol.

 

[Scougar]

I think as someone pointed out, for the UK you can essentially include employers NI on top of your pay at approximately 14% from memory. That makes my net take home in the range of 55-56% (excluding my pension).

That's crazy low percentage for net.

Never say never. There is lots of money to be made as a software developer ($150K+ starting) if you join a company that has a half-decent compensation policy. If they don't, you need to work for a company that does. They're out there and still hiring.

Starting?

North East Tri State area and my first three jobs offers here 8 years ago where just shy of 80k plus benefits/bonus. I got offered all three jobs I interviewed for that week and picked the big etailer for security as my first job here. Then soent 5 years there, and was going nowhere due to silo work, so moved company. A lot happier and more creative now.

Looking around at payscales on websites, 150k is extreme high end. Not sure where you are working exactly, but I would like to know lol. That would be high for a senior around here.

 

[Scougar]

I was looking at it as 'what I take home' (NET) rather than just 'tax', because that is what counts. Indirect comes into it to, such as ... common tax rates for housing in my area ranges from $8k to $20k per year. (school, police, land taxes etc). My town home is sub $3k for that at present but I'll go to $8k to $10k range later this year when I move.

When you factor in having to pay massively for health insurance and other little pieces, it actually seems to level out pay percentage wise.

I don't really have a choice but to own a car. Going anywhere the bus system SSUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSsssssss so bad. Comedy US only moment, I went to an interview (aced it btw), and on the way out my recruiter asked to walk me to my car (she was chatting me up), but I mentioned I took the bus.. and she dropped me like a hot rock. LMAO.

 

[Scougar]

Excess hours can be frowned upon sometimes. I remember in my first IT role I was told by my manager if can't do the job in 40 hours there's one of two things wrong. 1. You can't do your job. 2. You're overloaded with work and that needs to be reduced. NUmber of hours worked shouldn't really be a factor at reviews. I know American companies can think a little differently however. *Snip*

The additional hours are not often project related, it's additional or planned. i.e. an outage of some kind. Or this weekend there is a disaster recovery test going on that I need to support.

Work is planned on hours available. There is always something that screws up your timeline though.

One thing I would say, is that if the support work was being billed they would be shutting things down a lot quicker.

Related note: American companies 'knee jerk' a hell of a lot more than UK companies. Excessive reaction to a problem is common and expected.

 

[Scougar]

FAANG are definitely the odd balls for salary. 'golden handcuffs' etc. They aren't the 'norm'. I certainly wouldn't complain at that range either, I would be stoked.

 

[Scougar]

Sales tax in PA is 6%. Next door in DE it is 0%. So depends where you live.

 

[Scougar]

You REALLLLLLLLY don't want to start comparing university costs of US vs UK. It's shocking over here.

 

[Scougar]

I never get why anyone would move to USA over Canada. Having been to both. It's pretty much the exact same apart from free healthcare, less drug users, less guns, much nicer people and less crime overall I would imagine thanks to the Canadian culture and mentality.

You would have to pay me enough to live in a gated community and have private security to make America worthwhile. Especially with the homeless epidemic they have.

I'm not sure where you went in the USA to want to live in a gated community.