Just like anything worthwhile is done: through free market competition. Build a successful startup, make some nice money and attract the best in the business to work for you by making them eye-popping offers. This will make your competitors react by raising their pay and with it the whole market.
It’s how Silicon Valley reached those salaries after all...
You may want to take another look. Healthcare in the US is twice as expensive per capita as most European countries while the healthcare system ranks near the bottom of the OECD [2, 3] and 11th out of 11 in a recent commonwealth fund survey [1]. For the first time, life expectancy in the US is actually going down.
Even the best area identified in [2, 3] re: 5-year mortality for cancers is misleading as the US notoriously over-tests early on, detecting disease early, but isn't actually more effective at treating the disease, and folks die at the same time as they would in European systems. This naturally makes the 5-year mortality rates look good, but doesn't change the fact you're still gonna die at the same time.
While admittedly cherry-picked, it's also the only developed country in the world where mother's mortality rates during childbirth are rising. A mother is 5X as likely to die giving birth in America as compared to Canada (where healthcare costs half per capita and covers everyone).
Also, consider the median amount of tax collected in the US (excluding private $800/month tax your employer pays to insurance companies on your behalf) is actually higher sometimes than Canada now. The top marginal rates are also higher, consistently. [4]
The US spends more per capita on Healthcare than many countries with a full public health system, for worse outcomes. It's actually impressive if you look at it from a certain angle.
My personal experience moving from CA to Japan is that despite the national taxes being higher than the USA, it pencils out to less than what I was paying in the US because of CA’s high tax rate, and I get a functioning healthcare system to boot.
Are you a developer in Japan? What is that like and what space do you work in? I’ll never be able to move to Japan but it sounds very interesting to me.
I'm working remotely for my startup I built in the USA, so I don't know personally what it's like at companies here per se, but as the other commenter said, wages are considerably lower on average - though I've heard that it's generally higher than the wages in Europe. Seems that $40-70k is a fairly normal first job wage for a bootcamper for instance.
The culture at companies is extremely dependent on the company - a traditional employer might expect the prototypically Japanese extreme deference/obedience to hierarchy, but it also seems that there are plenty of companies that "get it" and don't play that game, as well as the full set of FAANGs and foreigner-run companies that follow a totally different set of rules than the old school businesses here; and it's also subject to change considerably now that model companies like Toyota are moving to merit- instead of loyalty-based promotions, but that kind of shift takes a long time to take hold.
Your job options are much smaller if you don't speak Japanese, but jobs exist, I know people who have gotten them, and they tend to be in the international- or international-style companies. Wages for foreigners strangely are generally decently higher than for locals, I hear, even if not knowing Japanese is more of a handicap than a help lol.
Coworkers at Japanese company with site here in California relayed to me the pay was 3-5x less circa 1990s at least, many developers there can speak English but being fluent in Japanese would help a lot (even necessary at times) in work situations and outside work.
The SWEs will buy more stuff and eat out more, increasing the demand for retail and restaurant workers. It does trickle down, but due to continuous influx (because qualification requirements are low) of new potential retail and restaurant workers you don't notice on an individual level but on a globalized level it matters because those new retail/restaurant workers have improved themselves.
I can't speak for OP, but I can say that OP never said non-competitive behavior isn't worthwhile. The question being answered is how to increase salaries, not how to make something worthwhile.
It’s how Silicon Valley reached those salaries after all...