> I'm pretty sure that IBM Germany wouldn't pay you more either.
Wrong guess, they do pay more. I worked for IBM R&D Germany right after graduation and my salary was more than 45k, even excluding overtime, which was paid extra.
As for Germany, there's also a gap in salary depending on the size of the company you work for. Generally, larger cooperations pay better than smaller ones, so if you're looking to make more money, go for the bigger players.
Of course, there a huge differences in salaries for the same work, even within a company. Anyway, I know some IBM Germany employees in development/project management who don't make 70k after >10 years of job experience.
Do you have any data to share on how much your senior peers at IBM made? Even public German research labs pay their Phd students >38k after graduation, so your numbers don't surprise me so far.
And many employes don't get paid overtime. They officially have to take vacation, which again is usually not possible due to project pressure. Hence, many vacation days become void after deadlines.
I don't have any good data on this, just what I hear from my peers. So my post is as anecdotal as yours. However, if you look at the Heise report, my numbers are not so far off.
I second your last point, but thats not a German/European uniqueness, right?
Wrong guess, they do pay more. I worked for IBM R&D Germany right after graduation and my salary was more than 45k, even excluding overtime, which was paid extra.
As for Germany, there's also a gap in salary depending on the size of the company you work for. Generally, larger cooperations pay better than smaller ones, so if you're looking to make more money, go for the bigger players.