deadalnix highlights €50k–€200k gap

Software pay is one of those topics that looks simple until you compare the whole package. A Rust developer, deadalnix, kicked that back into view on X by putting two numbers side by side — about €50k in France and about $200k in San Francisco. The point was not just that one city pays more. It was that the Bay Area package often includes stock, faster promotion ladders, and managers who actually know how tech careers scale, while a lot of European roles still center on salary alone. The raw gap is big. The compounding effect is bigger. ### What did deadalnix actually highlight? The thread’s core claim was straightforward: many engineers in France still see something like €50k as a normal salary, often without meaningful equity, while Bay Area engineers can land closer to $200k with RSUs or options on top. Projet Pilecan pushed the same point further, arguing that equity can easily be the difference between “good salary” and “career-changing compensation.” The thread landed because those numbers are not fantasy. They line up pretty well with current market snapshots. ### Is $200k for early-career SF really normal? Basically, yes — at least in the part of the market people usually mean when they say “SF tech.” Levels.fyi’s current Bay Area page for entry-level software engineers shows a median total package of about $198,500, with a typical range from roughly $163,000 to $230,425. That is total compensation, not just base salary, which matters a lot here because stock is doing real work in the package. (levels.fyi) ### What does France look like on the same scale? France is much lower, and the difference survives even when you use generous datasets. PayScale’s 2026 average for software engineers in France is about €44,593, with the median around €45k and the upper end around €62k. Levels.fyi’s France page is somewhat higher because it skews toward larger tech employers, but even there the median total comp is only about $65,443, and Paris sits around $72,256 median total comp. (levels.fyi) In other words — deadalnix’s “€50k France” shorthand is directionally right. ### Why do RSUs change the story so much? Because RSUs turn company growth into personal income. A base salary might look merely solid, but then stock adds tens of thousands per year. You can see that in recent Bay Area submissions on Levels.fyi — one Verkada entry-level package showed $135k base plus $62.5k in annualized stock. At Google in the Bay Area, the L3 software-engineer package starts around $211k total comp. That is why two jobs that both sound like “software engineer” can produce completely different wealth trajectories. (payscale.com) ### Is this just a cost-of-living story? Not really. Cost of living explains part of the wage gap, but not a 4x headline difference once equity enters the frame. The deeper split is market structure — more venture-backed firms, more public tech companies, more liquid stock, and more employers competing for the same engineering talent in the Bay Area. France has strong engineers, but fewer companies routinely paying Silicon Valley-style equity packages. (levels.fyi) ### Why did “tech-savvy managers” come up? Because compensation is not the only thing that scales. In strong Bay Area orgs, managers often understand leveling, promo cases, scope growth, and how to use equity refreshers to retain people. That changes career velocity. A mediocre manager can cost an engineer years. A strong one can turn a decent first job into a much steeper earnings curve. That part is harder to measure, but it helps explain why the gap feels wider than salary tables alone suggest. (levels.fyi) ### Does this mean Europe is hopeless for engineers? No — but it does mean the comparison has to be honest. Europe can offer stability, labor protections, healthcare, and sometimes a better day-to-day lifestyle. But if the question is pure upside, especially early wealth accumulation, the Bay Area still looks structurally different because stock is built into the system more often. ### Bottom line The thread resonated because it named something engineers already know but do not always quantify well: salary is only the visible layer. Equity, promotion systems, and employer density are the real multipliers. Put those together, and €50k versus $200k stops looking like a quirky anecdote and starts looking like two different labor markets.