I don't think you know what you're talking about, or you are omitting western Europe. In Germany/Austria most workers are on collective bargaining agreements (different and specific for each industry, incl IT) which is regulated by unions plus org-specific councils (Betriebsräte in AT/DE, similar in other countries). Similar for Switzerland, also Collective labour agreements in Netherlands. Seems to be similar in Spain and France but these I didn't have experience with. So yeah, your comment is at least misleading or ignorant and bullshit at most
Isn't it a regular complaint that American tech workers don't get the kinds of benefits they would in Europe, especially healthcare? Even someone with a very nice American salary can be bankrupted by medical expenses very easily in America. When Americans do end up bankrupt it's usually medical debt that is to blame.
It seems like there should be room for a happy medium somewhere where some workers in the US maybe don't get the same salaries but are also not having to spend so much on healthcare, get more time with their families, get better just protections, etc. Once you make enough money that you're not really worried about meeting your bills and can pretty much buy what you want the peace of mind is more important than the bragging rights you get over who has a bigger paycheck.
No that’s not a regular complaint from tech workers. Every partially subsidized employer paid insurance has out of pocket max that is usually around $16K a year for a family if you choose a high deductible plan at the worse.
But the answer is that your insurance shouldn’t be tied to your employer in the US. You don’t need unions for that.
No, I don't see those complaints anywhere. US workers are paid so much more that the lower salary + higher taxes are not worth it. Especially due to the fact that many of the high paying SWE jobs include very good health insurance.
The vast majority of IT jobs pay pretty meager here. There are some exceptions but not that much. You gave to be "manager" to get any decent pay most of the time.
Hmm most people I know earn well above median and whenever I look at my regions statistics it confirms that... Joining an union would mean cuts to these people. I am a fan of unions for low pay jobs but not in tech.
Why do you think unions would mean salary cuts? Unions don't set maximum salaries. You are absolutely free to negotiate your salary, raises, promotions, and so on.
In the Nordics quite many tech workers are in unions. For most people it's perhaps just about habits and solidarity, but they do offer tangible benefits like free consultation and legal representation in a case of dispute with your employer.
Because companies are going to base salaries on collective agreements with the union which are usually lower compared to the salary high paying jobs have. At least that's how unions work in my country.
Unions are powerful because they can call for protests and employees who are in a union cant get laid off due to joining the protest. But its not worth if the job already has way better working conditions than like 80% of jobs out there.
I don't think your salary negotiation position is diminished by having some kind of a lower bound. Skilled employees should be able to get a higher salary if the employers value their skills, and that does happen all the time also in countries with strong unions, like those Nordics.
Even without unions Europe wouldn't have US tech salary levels, those numbers come from other market dynamics.
So play it out with me. Use Faangs as an example please.
Say all the engineers in all the top engeering companies by pay were suddenly in a union, how does the collective bargaining work on pay. You don't think pay would be lowered for high level engineers?
Collective bargaining would not apply to any of these salaries. Collective bargaining as we usually understand it sets the lower bound for salaries in a certain field, think of it as field specific minimum wage. Indeed, some Nordic countries have no minimum wage at all because ~all fields are covered by collective bargaining -- regardless whether the employees are part of the union or not!
So no, pay would not be lowered. I don't understand where this kind of a misconception comes from. Collective bargaining does not mean that everyone gets the same salary. As I said earlier, you are free to negotiate a higher salary, and companies wanting to attract top talent will still have to compete through compensation.
In the top engineering companies, collective bargaining could be used to negotiate other perks, like paid leaves, hour banks where you collect all work time exceeding a regular work day, paid parental leaves, and/or whatever topics are important for the work force. I'm not the one to define that though.
Collective salary bargaining is efficient in fields where the workforce is highly interchangeable, and the workers' ability to produce higher value is limited. If factory workers, miners, or nurses are not unionized they are really placing themselves in a precarious position.
"unions dont set max salaries" you are free to negotiate better salary. fact that union had agreed with company on minimum salary, does not change anything for you. yes the company can say "hey you asking too much, we talked with unions" but company can say the same either way "hey you asking too much, market is tough". so unions just the lower bar.
Unions of low wage jobs have extremely limited bargaining power compared to a much smaller group of people with far more specialized skills that are in demand.
In Europe you can make a lot of money in consulting given you also work a ton. With a regular 40h/w job it usually comes over time or with leadership roles. But entry level jobs are often well above median already. Not 6 digit silicon valley numbers but more than enough for my locals cost of living. Pretty company independent in my experience.
