Where is the best to live and work developer
Alyona Lazareva, a freelance editor, has translated a Benjamin Martin article for Netology's blog about cities where developers have the best salaries.
Where is the best place to look for work for a developer? In New York? San Francisco?
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Judging by the level of wages, Silicon Valley is a clear winner - the average annual income for a developer there is $ 110,554, according to Glassdoor. But the cost of renting in the San Francisco Bay area is so high that not all developers can afford to rent housing there.
But where to look for work, if not in the Valley? For a more complete analysis, we compared the real income of software engineers in 43 cities around the world and found where they can earn the most. To do this, we used a simple formula:
Real income = Average salary - Taxes - Social security - Cost of living - Rent
If you do not have time to read the whole article, then here are the conclusions we reached:
Seattle is a clear winner, wages there are close to those offered in Silicon Valley, and rents are much lower. In general, with some exceptions in the US, the results are better than outside. Interestingly, San Jose ranks third out of 21 in the ranking by US cities, while San Francisco is only on the 19th. The difference in rent is to blame.
On the East Coast, in New York and Washington (DC), things are even worse - they occupy the last two places, respectively. Phoenix is ​​second, while Austin and Houston finish the top five. If you look at the international rating, we advise you to pay attention to Tel Aviv, major cities in Canada and Berlin. But in London, Singapore and China, things are not as good as we expected.
Earlier we read an article on the Glassdoor portal " 25 cities with the best salaries for programmers ." In their ranking, San Jose ranks second, and San Francisco is third. Glassdoor believes that the cost of living is higher in San José than in San Francisco. Our data suggests otherwise.
Let's take a closer look at their formula:
Scaled income = ((average cost of living) / (actual cost of living)) * Basic income
To compare life in different cities in this way seemed to us to be not entirely correct. People just want to know how much money they will have by the end of the year.
Therefore, we have compiled our own formula for determining real income. We took the earnings of the average development engineer who lives alone in the city center, and used this as an indicator for ranking. This leads to completely different results.
Real income = Average salary - Taxes - Social security - Cost of living - Rent
Do not forget that a significant part of the salary goes to pay taxes, the amount of which varies depending on the region of residence. Therefore, in our calculations, we used the base salary for each city according to Glassdoor, considered the amount that remained after the tax was paid, and then deducted from it the cost of living and rental costs. To make it easier for you to understand how much your specialty is in demand in different cities of the United States and around the world, we have calculated the number of vacancies currently open.
Most of the indicators in America and other countries are markedly different. Therefore, it seemed to us that comparing them was not entirely correct, and we made two ratings: one for cities in the United States and the second for all others.
Many believe that such a modest salary outside the United States is offset by relatively low living expenses. But even if you take this into account, wages in other countries still cannot compete with wages in the United States.
Our research suggests that Seattle is the best place for developers. Thanks to companies like Amazon and Microsoft, the average wage is almost as high as Silicon Valley, and lower rental prices mean more money saved each month.
If you conceived the move, then Phoenix, Austin and Houston are an excellent choice, the real income there is above $ 30,000. However, these markets are still growing and there are not so many vacancies there as in the cities at the bottom of the list. Raleigh (North Carolina) is slightly inferior to Houston, but again, the labor market there is currently relatively small.
Above, we have already drawn your attention to the difference in real profits in San Jose and San Francisco. Cities are close to each other - in the San Francisco Bay area, the market situation is also very similar, so why do we see such a big difference in real income? Our data shows that the salary and cost of living are almost identical, it’s all about expensive rentals in San Francisco.
The variation in the amount of daily expenses is not so large, in contrast to the rental rate. In our ranking of US cities, Phoenix occupies the third line, there the average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment will cost you $ 972 a month. In San Francisco you can rent a similar apartment for $ 3272, so it is only in 19th place.
Outside the San Francisco Bay area, the most active labor market for developers is now developing in Washington, New York and Boston, but because of the high rent they go to the end of our list. In Washington, at the moment open most of the vacancies. But the high cost of living and the low average salary make us admit: Washington is not the best choice of all the cities in America.
We also decided to find out what is happening in other countries.
For comparison, we chose cities that already have or appear technology parks.
Oslo tops the list in terms of profit, but we have not mentioned it before, because the labor market there is the smallest of 43 cities. Evaluate your chances soberly: in Oslo at the moment only 106 vacancies are open, and, for example, in New York - 22,554.
We think that it would be better to take a closer look at Tel Aviv, which occupies the second line of our rating. There is a large technology park, and the labor market in Tel Aviv looks quite good. In addition, there is a system of tax incentives for those who have recently arrived in the country, which we did not take into account in our calculations.
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver occupy the 3rd, 4th and 5th places on our list of real income. There are more open vacancies in each of them than in Tel Aviv. The sixth place in the list of Berlin, which is one of the largest in Europe technology parks. Bangalore deserves a special mention - there you will find the largest number of vacancies and a very, very small real income.
Real income in London is lower than the world average and much lower than in the USA. Another city that may surprise you is Beijing. Many are fascinated by technological innovations and special conditions for entry into the domestic market for local startups, but if we talk about salaries, there are better options.
In Singapore and Hong Kong, your real income will be close to zero, and in Warsaw and Moscow even lower, we even awarded these cities negative values. This means that there a programmer with an average salary cannot afford to rent housing in the city center.
We also calculated the rate of return for cities outside the United States: divided after-tax income into expenses, and then indexed it to a similar result for San Francisco. Thus, San Francisco will have a coefficient of 100, and a value of 150 for another city will mean that living there is 50% more profitable than in San Francisco.
X = (Income after taxes / expenses)
City yield coefficient A = 100 * (X city A / (X San Francisco)
The results for the most part repeat the schedule with real income. The most interesting in this case is the comparison of San Francisco and cities outside of America. Most US cities have odds higher than one hundred, and about half non-American cities have a lower number.
We understand that when choosing a city for work and life, you are not only interested in financial indicators. Therefore, we decided to see which cities will have the highest quality of life index. We took the Numbeo quality of life index as a basis, which is based on several factors:
For this comparison, we decided not to limit ourselves to the cities of America, but to make a global rating. Baltimore and Detroit did not make it, because we did not have enough data to calculate the indices of these cities.
The top ten cities in quality of life included Melbourne and 9 more American cities. However, outside of America, things are not so bad - 13 out of 22 cities bypass New York. Remember these results: we do not think that you want to live in a city with a bad environment.
In our calculations, we assumed that we are talking about a development engineer who lives alone and receives an average salary for a given city. Your personal “real incomes” can be very different from those that we calculated - depending on the position, marital status and life situation.
Secondly, we are not professionals in the field of taxation, and perhaps somewhere made a mistake. Having done this work, we began to respect accountants more - the international tax code is rather tedious. We assume that you are a resident of the country for the entire tax year. To get the amount of real income, we deducted income tax, local social security payments and compulsory insurance premiums. We also did not consider the situation in which you are subject to double taxation (this is possible if you simultaneously pay taxes in your home country and in the country of temporary residence).
Third, some discrepancies may arise from the sources in which we took data for comparison. Salary and vacancy data from Glassdoor , cost of living and rent are from Numbeo , and tax calculations are from the IRS and KPMG . It is noteworthy that in cities outside of America there was less data on the level of wages, so in some cases we used other sources. For example, we used Chinese sites to search for data from Beijing and Shanghai.
The source data that we used can be found here .
When we saw a negative indicator of real income for Moscow, we were very surprised. Everyone knows that the work of programmers is paid more than adequately, especially in the capital. Therefore, we have compiled our rating comparing Moscow with St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kiev and Minsk.
The formula for calculating left the same, the average wage for all cities prompted Yandex , the amount of daily expenses - Numbeo . The highest tax rate in Ukraine - to 18% personal income tax add 1.5% of the military tax. The lowest is in Minsk, where technopark residents deduct only 9% of their salaries to the state.
There were some difficulties with the calculations of the rental cost - for example, not everyone wants to live in the center of Moscow (hello, “My Street”!) Therefore, we made two lists: in the first one we deducted from the salary the rent of a one-room apartment in the center of the city, and in the second - in the bedroom area.
Living in the city center and not counting every penny can residents of Kiev. Accumulate in the year get a little more than $ 3000. St. Petersburg is in second place, where real income will be $ 2,326.13. Real income in Moscow is really in the red; however, we have it turned out not as big as in the study of Codementor. But if you don’t mind living in a residential area, then you’ll still make it.
We understand that such studies are similar to measuring the “average temperature in a hospital.” In reality, everything is much more complicated - for beginners and senior developers a huge difference in income levels. Improve, expand technology stack, increase your value in the market.
Until the end of August, Netology carries out an action : with the purchase of 1 training program - the 2nd one as a gift.
Where is the best place to look for work for a developer? In New York? San Francisco?
')
Judging by the level of wages, Silicon Valley is a clear winner - the average annual income for a developer there is $ 110,554, according to Glassdoor. But the cost of renting in the San Francisco Bay area is so high that not all developers can afford to rent housing there.
But where to look for work, if not in the Valley? For a more complete analysis, we compared the real income of software engineers in 43 cities around the world and found where they can earn the most. To do this, we used a simple formula:
Real income = Average salary - Taxes - Social security - Cost of living - Rent
What conclusions we came to
If you do not have time to read the whole article, then here are the conclusions we reached:
Seattle is a clear winner, wages there are close to those offered in Silicon Valley, and rents are much lower. In general, with some exceptions in the US, the results are better than outside. Interestingly, San Jose ranks third out of 21 in the ranking by US cities, while San Francisco is only on the 19th. The difference in rent is to blame.
On the East Coast, in New York and Washington (DC), things are even worse - they occupy the last two places, respectively. Phoenix is ​​second, while Austin and Houston finish the top five. If you look at the international rating, we advise you to pay attention to Tel Aviv, major cities in Canada and Berlin. But in London, Singapore and China, things are not as good as we expected.
How we did the calculations
Earlier we read an article on the Glassdoor portal " 25 cities with the best salaries for programmers ." In their ranking, San Jose ranks second, and San Francisco is third. Glassdoor believes that the cost of living is higher in San José than in San Francisco. Our data suggests otherwise.
Let's take a closer look at their formula:
Scaled income = ((average cost of living) / (actual cost of living)) * Basic income
To compare life in different cities in this way seemed to us to be not entirely correct. People just want to know how much money they will have by the end of the year.
Therefore, we have compiled our own formula for determining real income. We took the earnings of the average development engineer who lives alone in the city center, and used this as an indicator for ranking. This leads to completely different results.
Real income = Average salary - Taxes - Social security - Cost of living - Rent
Do not forget that a significant part of the salary goes to pay taxes, the amount of which varies depending on the region of residence. Therefore, in our calculations, we used the base salary for each city according to Glassdoor, considered the amount that remained after the tax was paid, and then deducted from it the cost of living and rental costs. To make it easier for you to understand how much your specialty is in demand in different cities of the United States and around the world, we have calculated the number of vacancies currently open.
How are things in the US
Most of the indicators in America and other countries are markedly different. Therefore, it seemed to us that comparing them was not entirely correct, and we made two ratings: one for cities in the United States and the second for all others.
Many believe that such a modest salary outside the United States is offset by relatively low living expenses. But even if you take this into account, wages in other countries still cannot compete with wages in the United States.
Our research suggests that Seattle is the best place for developers. Thanks to companies like Amazon and Microsoft, the average wage is almost as high as Silicon Valley, and lower rental prices mean more money saved each month.
If you conceived the move, then Phoenix, Austin and Houston are an excellent choice, the real income there is above $ 30,000. However, these markets are still growing and there are not so many vacancies there as in the cities at the bottom of the list. Raleigh (North Carolina) is slightly inferior to Houston, but again, the labor market there is currently relatively small.
Above, we have already drawn your attention to the difference in real profits in San Jose and San Francisco. Cities are close to each other - in the San Francisco Bay area, the market situation is also very similar, so why do we see such a big difference in real income? Our data shows that the salary and cost of living are almost identical, it’s all about expensive rentals in San Francisco.
The variation in the amount of daily expenses is not so large, in contrast to the rental rate. In our ranking of US cities, Phoenix occupies the third line, there the average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment will cost you $ 972 a month. In San Francisco you can rent a similar apartment for $ 3272, so it is only in 19th place.
Outside the San Francisco Bay area, the most active labor market for developers is now developing in Washington, New York and Boston, but because of the high rent they go to the end of our list. In Washington, at the moment open most of the vacancies. But the high cost of living and the low average salary make us admit: Washington is not the best choice of all the cities in America.
How are things in other countries?
We also decided to find out what is happening in other countries.
For comparison, we chose cities that already have or appear technology parks.
Oslo tops the list in terms of profit, but we have not mentioned it before, because the labor market there is the smallest of 43 cities. Evaluate your chances soberly: in Oslo at the moment only 106 vacancies are open, and, for example, in New York - 22,554.
We think that it would be better to take a closer look at Tel Aviv, which occupies the second line of our rating. There is a large technology park, and the labor market in Tel Aviv looks quite good. In addition, there is a system of tax incentives for those who have recently arrived in the country, which we did not take into account in our calculations.
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver occupy the 3rd, 4th and 5th places on our list of real income. There are more open vacancies in each of them than in Tel Aviv. The sixth place in the list of Berlin, which is one of the largest in Europe technology parks. Bangalore deserves a special mention - there you will find the largest number of vacancies and a very, very small real income.
Real income in London is lower than the world average and much lower than in the USA. Another city that may surprise you is Beijing. Many are fascinated by technological innovations and special conditions for entry into the domestic market for local startups, but if we talk about salaries, there are better options.
In Singapore and Hong Kong, your real income will be close to zero, and in Warsaw and Moscow even lower, we even awarded these cities negative values. This means that there a programmer with an average salary cannot afford to rent housing in the city center.
We also calculated the rate of return for cities outside the United States: divided after-tax income into expenses, and then indexed it to a similar result for San Francisco. Thus, San Francisco will have a coefficient of 100, and a value of 150 for another city will mean that living there is 50% more profitable than in San Francisco.
X = (Income after taxes / expenses)
City yield coefficient A = 100 * (X city A / (X San Francisco)
The results for the most part repeat the schedule with real income. The most interesting in this case is the comparison of San Francisco and cities outside of America. Most US cities have odds higher than one hundred, and about half non-American cities have a lower number.
What else is worth considering
We understand that when choosing a city for work and life, you are not only interested in financial indicators. Therefore, we decided to see which cities will have the highest quality of life index. We took the Numbeo quality of life index as a basis, which is based on several factors:
- cost of living and purchasing power;
- housing affordability;
- pollution (including air, water, and so on);
- crime level;
- quality of the health care system;
- the time that a person spends on the road from home to work.
For this comparison, we decided not to limit ourselves to the cities of America, but to make a global rating. Baltimore and Detroit did not make it, because we did not have enough data to calculate the indices of these cities.
The top ten cities in quality of life included Melbourne and 9 more American cities. However, outside of America, things are not so bad - 13 out of 22 cities bypass New York. Remember these results: we do not think that you want to live in a city with a bad environment.
Disclaimer
In our calculations, we assumed that we are talking about a development engineer who lives alone and receives an average salary for a given city. Your personal “real incomes” can be very different from those that we calculated - depending on the position, marital status and life situation.
Secondly, we are not professionals in the field of taxation, and perhaps somewhere made a mistake. Having done this work, we began to respect accountants more - the international tax code is rather tedious. We assume that you are a resident of the country for the entire tax year. To get the amount of real income, we deducted income tax, local social security payments and compulsory insurance premiums. We also did not consider the situation in which you are subject to double taxation (this is possible if you simultaneously pay taxes in your home country and in the country of temporary residence).
Third, some discrepancies may arise from the sources in which we took data for comparison. Salary and vacancy data from Glassdoor , cost of living and rent are from Numbeo , and tax calculations are from the IRS and KPMG . It is noteworthy that in cities outside of America there was less data on the level of wages, so in some cases we used other sources. For example, we used Chinese sites to search for data from Beijing and Shanghai.
The source data that we used can be found here .
From the Editor
When we saw a negative indicator of real income for Moscow, we were very surprised. Everyone knows that the work of programmers is paid more than adequately, especially in the capital. Therefore, we have compiled our rating comparing Moscow with St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kiev and Minsk.
The formula for calculating left the same, the average wage for all cities prompted Yandex , the amount of daily expenses - Numbeo . The highest tax rate in Ukraine - to 18% personal income tax add 1.5% of the military tax. The lowest is in Minsk, where technopark residents deduct only 9% of their salaries to the state.
There were some difficulties with the calculations of the rental cost - for example, not everyone wants to live in the center of Moscow (hello, “My Street”!) Therefore, we made two lists: in the first one we deducted from the salary the rent of a one-room apartment in the center of the city, and in the second - in the bedroom area.
Living in the city center and not counting every penny can residents of Kiev. Accumulate in the year get a little more than $ 3000. St. Petersburg is in second place, where real income will be $ 2,326.13. Real income in Moscow is really in the red; however, we have it turned out not as big as in the study of Codementor. But if you don’t mind living in a residential area, then you’ll still make it.
Conclusion
We understand that such studies are similar to measuring the “average temperature in a hospital.” In reality, everything is much more complicated - for beginners and senior developers a huge difference in income levels. Improve, expand technology stack, increase your value in the market.
Action from Netology
Until the end of August, Netology carries out an action : with the purchase of 1 training program - the 2nd one as a gift.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/335284/
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