Erm.. I'm certainly no expert, but 'we have to pay more for benefits like health care' should be somewhat qualified.
In DE half of the (state based. There's a 'I don't want to be part of the general system' option that works slightly different) health care is payed by your employer, half is deducted from your salary. It's a percentage of your income.
Next thing that kind of trips me here is that I'm pretty sure that the tax rate is a little different...
So - comparing the salary is probably already problematic, but if you want to start a discussion about costs you should compare the income _after taxes_. Good luck with that..
Edit: For kicks and giggles: If you're a single (not married, no children etc.) your tax rate here would be around (ballpark fiture. +/-5, I was too lazy to look it up and it ~depends~) 40% of your salary. This is the tax for your income only. You pay more than that (your share of the health care, a different 'tax' like thing for retirement fonds etc).
But remember that you only pay that on the last step of the income, to get to 40% of real deductions from your wages you should have a monthly pay >20000€
Marginal tax rate for me is around that (including California state tax) and likewise that doesn't include the Social-security and medicare.
Also, we have very limited safety net for retirement, so figure another 10% (or so) going to retirement savings. With my 401(k) contributions, my paycheck is almost exactly 1/2 of my gross pay.
http://dbaron.org/views/taxes-2007.html claims that in California, total marginal tax rate including SS but excluding private health insurance is around 40%, depending on the income. So with some room for retirement and health insurance, yes 50% is about the same or less as in most of Western Europe (the 40% quoted for Germany is only income tax, you'd need to add the mandatory part of the health insurance to it, the local taxes and of course the sales tax which is 19 to 21%; I don't think it ever goes above 10% in California). Oh and 'capital taxes', (not even 'capital gains taxes', which you have to pay too, I'm talking tax on things that you own and on which you've already paid tax before).
Yes California is expensive, tax-wise, but it's not as expensive as most places in Europe. Other places in the US are much cheaper.
In DE half of the (state based. There's a 'I don't want to be part of the general system' option that works slightly different) health care is payed by your employer, half is deducted from your salary. It's a percentage of your income.
Next thing that kind of trips me here is that I'm pretty sure that the tax rate is a little different...
So - comparing the salary is probably already problematic, but if you want to start a discussion about costs you should compare the income _after taxes_. Good luck with that..
Edit: For kicks and giggles: If you're a single (not married, no children etc.) your tax rate here would be around (ballpark fiture. +/-5, I was too lazy to look it up and it ~depends~) 40% of your salary. This is the tax for your income only. You pay more than that (your share of the health care, a different 'tax' like thing for retirement fonds etc).