>Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU
They have already been doing that pretty actively for quite a while. Doesn't seem to help much, if at all. Have you seen how much those American companies are paying to their employees in the EU? It is a joke compared to how much they pay in the US, and even with that in mind, their pay is still well above local equivalent companies. And it isn't due to differences in cost of living, just take a look at how much FB London pays (yes, I am aware that UK is not a part of EU, but the point still stands; I just simply picked one of the biggest "hub" cities in the are with very high COL).
>The global market is filled with tech workers who would otherwise be sucked in by the US. Give them visas.
EU doesn't suffer from a lack of talented individuals who have a desire and skills to start their own tech company. There have been countless discussions on this topic on HN, and the hard truth is that the governments in EU are simply not providing a conductive environment for those tech startups to flourish into internationally known giants. And the whole EU fragmentation due to wildly different legislations and language/culture barriers on a per-country basis isn't helping the matter either.
Anecdotal data, but you are wrong. If you count total comp FB London pays waaaay more than British tech companies and pretty much anything outside of high finance. The salaries aren't that much lower from what you'll get in Silicon Valley.
From my experience, my colleagues in Seattle make about twice as much as I do in the UK. Raw numbers, not counting taxes, cost of living, etc. In general a new hire in US can make as much as a senior in EU.
Comparing income between countries is very difficult due to a lot of factors (different currency, cost of living, taxes, social benefits like health and education...) but I don't think is hard to argue that tech workers are paid much better in the US than they are in the EU, factoring everything in.
Also just because Seattle gets more, does that mean its not worthwhile to have higher wages in UK? What kind of reductionist point of view is this?
It has been clearly observed that the standards of living and wages have gone up in countries that have invested in tech over last 20 years. These countries are USA, India, China and Canada recently. Don't you want higher than what you are getting now? Make it easy for industry to survive and operate there.
Not if that means they have to move everywhere (which only big tech can afford), and not if the EU continues to be a bad environment for startups to flourish. The best talent will be underpaid or scattered, which is the point.
>If you count total comp FB London pays waaaay more than British tech companies and pretty much anything outside of high finance.
I am in agreement with you here. Even with the abysmal FB London compensation (compared to heavy majority of tech companies in SV/Seattle/Austin/NYC), it is still way higher than local equivalent tech companies. This just reinforces the point I was making in my previous comment.
>The salaries aren't that much lower from what you'll get in Silicon Valley.
They are much lower than in SV/Seattle/Austin/NYC, if you count total comp (which is what majority of people in tech actually count, because the base cash pay becomes less and less relevant the higher you get promoted). And that's not even mentioning taxes and such being much lower in the US(no state income tax in Seattle/Austin at all, for example, only federal).
P.S. on my last point, there is no need to bring up insurance costs that don't come included with lower taxes in the US, as majority of tech companies in the US provide amazing insurance coverage for pretty much no extra charge.
Another issue in the EU is that they try to generalise the term "startup" to non-tech ventures... and then try to apply the advice meant for 80% margin B2B SaaS companies.
They have already been doing that pretty actively for quite a while. Doesn't seem to help much, if at all. Have you seen how much those American companies are paying to their employees in the EU? It is a joke compared to how much they pay in the US, and even with that in mind, their pay is still well above local equivalent companies. And it isn't due to differences in cost of living, just take a look at how much FB London pays (yes, I am aware that UK is not a part of EU, but the point still stands; I just simply picked one of the biggest "hub" cities in the are with very high COL).
>The global market is filled with tech workers who would otherwise be sucked in by the US. Give them visas.
EU doesn't suffer from a lack of talented individuals who have a desire and skills to start their own tech company. There have been countless discussions on this topic on HN, and the hard truth is that the governments in EU are simply not providing a conductive environment for those tech startups to flourish into internationally known giants. And the whole EU fragmentation due to wildly different legislations and language/culture barriers on a per-country basis isn't helping the matter either.