Strykaas

Hi all,

I'm posting this here because I have no idea where to get the piece of information elsewhere. Through RCU, I have been in touch with many american modellers to talk RC. I would simply like to talk about off topic subjects for just a few seconds, so please, don't erase this post straight away. Give it a chance, and then remove it in a week if you wish.

I'm a french guy who wonders what it would be to work in the United States... Here wages are not that high, even for well educated guys, and taxes are really high...

I would like to have some testimonies of people having the same background as me and working in software development.
I have 6 years experience, including 4 years in the field of aeronautics (VxWorks embedded soft dev, aircraft main calculator soft dev, ....). I've been working on french fighter aircraft (Dassault Rafale, Dassault Mirage 5) in rather big companies (including General Electric Healthcare !). I'm 28. I have a masters degree in computer science along aeronautics knowledge (aeronautics engineering school, 5 years long after bachelor's degree).

How much shall I expect as a salary by your side in a medium sized company ? Is finding a job in this field doable today ? I guess California is the place for such jobs... Any other location ?

Regarding income taxes, what can be said ? I've heard there are big gaps between states, e.g. no income tax in Florida ???
Here, income taxes are 35-40% overall... Plus here you have VAT, 20% !!!! To give you an idea, a Jetcat P120 equals one full month salary [X(][X(][X(] !!!!

Thank you for your input !

jettstarblue

Check out www.monster.com
1.) Pack your bags.
2.) get your work visa in order.
3.) get on that plane!

jettstarblue

Oh yeah, we have 5-7 day work weeks, 40-70 hours, and no manditory vacation.

This is the land of opportunity baby! All the work you want, and then some!

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

And, for people in middle income and up, you can expect a Federal Income tax to take nearly 50% of your wages, followed by State income tax, State Sales tax on anything you buy, federal liquor taxes, gasoline taxes, taxes on cigarrettes, meals tax, Excise tax, Luxury tax....

And don't forget the money taken from your paychaeck for Social Security and health insurance.

Anyone else want in on this??
Dennis-

Live Wire

Jett

I think I had better stay out of this one[>:][&o]

[8D]

RCVFR

My Feedback: (7)

The Peoples Republic Of California probably has employment opportunities in your field, provided home ownership is not on your list of priorities.

hookedonrc

Can't really help you on wages since I am not in your field. However, if I am not mistaken, the European Community enjoys a 6 week vacation called "holiday." You can pretty much give up on that one if you come here. Most companies start you at either 2 or 3 weeks a year and your first bump 4 comes at around 10 years in many. And...not sure about where you are, but socialized medicine is not avialable...we have something called HMO's that you will just love!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my country for the world, but we do have our list of con's on the pro's and con's list.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Know a lot of people in the industry, and they all do well. If you are a go getter, there are jobs to be had and good income as well. At any rate, if you make a net income above $30,000, you will be in the 25% bracket for taxes. I don't know where you pop into the next one. Seattle is another good one to look at. Lots of tech jobs there. Lots of competition, but if you are good, there are jobs. The Visa is the hard part.

BankYank

My Feedback: (63)

Well STAY AWAY from Idaho. Its a right to work state and that basically means your screwed by your employer

FrancisPerson

Northern Virginia near Washington DC is booming with Tech jobs (provided your resume rocks)

Francis

Live Wire

Seen this here once before[>:]

smokingcrater

the majority of taxes are federal, so the state don't really mean much after you see a big chunk of your paycheck disappear to uncle sam.

David Cutler

California is a good place with your skills. There will be a huge problem in your field though; and that's your ability to get a visa (an H1B is probably what you are looking for) to work in an area that might be high security.

A lot of the jobs in Cal in that line say you have to be an American citizen and becoming one can be very expensive and can take a long time.

If I were you I would consider taking another degree at one of the Universities in LA or SF and use that route to get an I20 (the document issued by Universities so you can get an F1 student visa) and use the time to get a foot in the visa door. After you finish, you can then get what is called Optional Practical Training; a scheme accepted by the government for specially trained University graduates, which allows you to work for a year while trying to get your H1B.

Yep! The States is a maze of documentation!

-David C.

jettstarblue

You could always look for a jorb in Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, China, or ???????

pauluk2w

My Feedback: (7)

I will tell you from personal experience if you think immigration will be easy forget it. if you think you just apply for the forms and when you get them you can immigrate forget it. it is a lengthy and expensive process I moved from england 2 years ago after marrying my wife (who is an American) so i can speak from a first hand experience. work visa have become difficult to get after 9/11. then you have to pay for medical examinations, AIDS test (all immigrants have to have one) finger printing, you also have your photo's to pay for and they say you have to use a listed photographer from a list they have. it goes on and on. this is no walk in the park even if you do get a work permit it will only entitle you to work in the US for 2 years and i will tell you not many employers will hire you if you have a work permit, they want someone that can work for them for a long period of time.
if you do find work they will only want to pay you minimum wage

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

And Virginia is also a right to work state...great thing...fewer unions.

You will have a problem without the ole green card however. The general rule is that to get one, the company must establish that no one here can do the job, and programmers are a dime a dozen here.

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

There is huge demand for programmers with your skills in US aerospace. Southern California wages would be about $55-75K with that experience. Oh and you need to be a US citizen for those jobs.

Average house in SoCal now must be well over $500K though and taxes are high

Embedded development in commercial is mainly Linux, some XP, and then a bunch of medical equipment. Those jobs are in Norhtern California, houses are probabaly more there.

famousdave

My Feedback: (61)

I guess this is getting into "soft" ground here on the RCU forum, but I'll post anyway because I don't see the subject as being inflammatory or violating any specific policy!

Immigration is a real issue here in the US.

I you have brains, can fluently speak our language, have a good degree and can contribute to the tax base - you are not likely to get in the US on a Visa or ever be welcome here. Citizenship.. yeah right.

On the other hand, If you are a criminal, completely inept, have no skills and cannot speak a word of English - NO PROBLEM! Come on over and we'll even PAY you to live here. We'll give you money for your kids, encourage you to breed, pay for your medicine, and we'll even give you money to help you start a business as long as its not in english!

When I was running a company I got into hot water with the INS over a Canadian PhD I was trying to hire. I learned a lot about how messed up the immigration laws are in this country and just how poisoned our system is. And poisoned is a polite word, let me tell you. I actually got as far as petitioning Congress to make an appeal for this person.

I ended up not being able to hire the Canadian and ultimately had to lose one of the most intelligent and decent human beings I had ever met to a competitor in another country (Singapore).

I could have hired illegals all day though.. no worries there.

Pretty disgusting actually.

Anyway, don't want to discourage you, and best of luck to you if you want to come here!
Our companies do need the help and we always are looking for good software engineers!

If you can fly we like r/c pilots too!
DP


Are there any good clubs out there ? How about pilots?
I spent a bunch of time in Lille and was not able to find any flying sites. I did fly in Brussels though!

MajorTomski

Do a Google search for "meadian US wages" and you'll get this and many more

http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/librarys...nformation.htm

Tom 25 year aero engineer federal employee now making just over 108,000.00/year

Strykaas

Thanks to all of you for answering my question.

Here, we have 5 day work week, 50-60 hours, no mandatory vacation, but you have the right to 6 weeks vacation. It remains constant, whatever your work experience.


Here, not really. If you want to work more, then you won't be paid for that lol !!!


OK. Could you please give me a numbered example ? Let's assume my employer gives me $100.000. What will I have left in my pocket ?



Nope, it's not. I have looked at the "apartment rentals" sites, and prices were not that bad. $1.200 / month for a 890 sq ft flat with all the facilities (swimming pool , fitness, ... ) !!!


True.

What do you mean ? State paid health care ? Here in France, state pays for 70% of your medecine expenses. The rest is paid by your employer, which sums up to zero for you (a given amount of money is subtracted from your wages to pay for this, and this is mandatory).

What is HMO ? Medicare ? What is it precisely ?

Here, were are in the 44 % bracket !!!

What is that good in Idaho ? What is it so good to wirk there ? Climate ?

What do you call "big chunk" ? Give numbers plz.


Well, student life is over for me, and I don't want to get back to it !!! Argh ! It was tough here.... Thanks for your input though. I could just suggest my brother (still a student, but in the electronics field) to do that.


Mhh... Thought about Canada already. Too cold for me . Don't talk about Mexico, nor China (do you like Chinese girlies ? argh, I don't !!). My understanding is that the US is THE place to get maximum wages with my skills... Moreover, I love big space, I am quite tired of living in very small houses, very small cars, expensive hi tech stuff, and rc stuff too !!!


Work visa ? Do you mean green card ? Let 's assume a given employer gives me a green card, is it time limited ? TO what extent ? Two years, so that my employer has to renew it ? What about asoftware consultants companies ? Is it a trap ?


What do you mean ?

Man, if you're right, I had better give up now ! On the other hand, the only way I can pull through would be to accept low wages ?

Mr_matt, yes I think I will have to give up that field if I want to make it. Embedded dev in commercial shall be my target I guess. DO you think US citizenship may be granted after several years ? How many ? Would it make it easier for H1B ?
Yeah, house prices are just rocketing over there.


Man, you would just be stuck if only you knew how things are going here. I just cannot understand the rules here. The funny stuff is that the more children you have, the more money you get. It's not rare to see jobless parents 7-8 children families making a decent living !!!! Let alone some foreigners e.g. aids contaminated guys from Africa being healt in french hospitals for free. Let's forget all that BS, it really makes me sick. Anyway....


Yeah , I'm in, and when I see some of your airflieds, it just gets me crazy !

Yeah there are some good flying sites here and there, but they are very RARE. I regularly fly from a really bad runway, ut it's close to my house. I could fly from 300 ft tarmac runways, but 2 hours drive from here. If you need some advice next time you come here, send me a PM.



Good. MajorTom, can you please tell me how much left in your pocket you have ? In which state do you work ? What do you mean by federal employee ? What are the implications ?

Thanks again to all of you [sm=thumbup.gif].

hookedonrc

Regarding your question on an HMO? - It stands for Health Maintenance Organization. Depending on what company you work for depends on what you are covered for. Most cover major medical problems and surgeries if needed. They do, however, in most cases, require you to pay what is termed "copays" for normal DR. visits or specialists. My copay for a DR visit, for example, is $15.00. For emergency room visits, it is $50.00 out of pocket expenses. In most, they require that you have a personal physician that is on their list (some are not) and he/she must refer you to a specialist if you need that type of care. Some HMO's have been known to turn down medical claims because the type of service wasn't required (in their opinion), you went to a DR not on their list, or you chose elective surgery. There are other numerous items that are covered, but as I said it is mostly what your company decides to pay for. We in the U.S. have approximately 45 million people not covered by any medical insurance whether it be HMO or not. Something that I think we should be ashamed of based on the resources this country has. (That is my personal opinion)

flyingtomg

My Feedback: (10)

For another software engineer data point:

I work in Denver as a Java programmer. I have 8 years doing Java full time (12 years as a software engineer). I am considered a senior engineer by everyone I've spoken with. I make between $80-100K/year depending on the contract I'm on.

A word of warning: The Denver area got hammered by the tech bust a couple of years back. Before that, you could quit anywhere and get a new job with a couple of weeks. Now, companies are laying off and it's a real fight to get hired again. I was layed-off last year and it took 3 months to find a new job. That seemed to be about the average for the engineers I know.

Hope this helps.

flyingtomg

scottrc

You can expect a salary, depending on where you live, to be offered between $40,000 to $100,000 a year.
Many investment magazines, such as "Smart Money" offer "cost of living" indexes that show how much it will cost to live in Seattle vs Fargo North Dakota. Also, check the internet for these indexes. You may think, hey I'll take the Seattle job because they are offering $210,000.00 a year vs $56,000.00 that Fargo offered me. However, a 1 bedroom flat in Seattle might cost you $5000.00 a month in rent, plus your two hour commute, plus tolls vs a brand new 4 bedroom, two bath, double car garage house in Fagro may cost you $1500.00 a month and you can live 5 minutes from your workplace.
According to this years tax figures, the average per capita income for a middle aged person with a Masters degree in engineering is $79,000.00. So expect to start around $50,000.00.

Now comes the big kicker in America. Your taxes. How many kids do you have? What kind of investing do you do? Do you do any contract work or work on your own? This is where you can either pay through the nose or make out like a bandit. The US tax codes are very robust, and those who are in the $50 to $1000 wage range are taxed the highest, so once you get your job, get a good tax advisor to help you navigate all the tax loopholes that you may fall through if you are not careful.

Oh, and be very afraid of local taxes. The Fed will let you deduct everything but he kitchen sink and you should be able to get a return, however, the state will turn around and not allow any deductions, so what the Fed givith, the state will taketh away.

Then, expect a huge chuck, 30% at least, to go to health care. Take advantage of felxible spending accounts, 401Ks, and IRAs if your employer offers them.

You will be in the hardest wage bracket in America. What you will acutually be able to put in the bank at the end of the month will depend on how well you manage you finances, not on how much they pay you. 75% of people in America who are in high debt, or are declairing bankruptcy, make in this wage bracket.

Scott

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

At the $50,000 per year range you can expect to pay approximately 35% to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in Federal Income Tax, plus some amount for State Income Tax, which is 5 to 7% (off gross wages, not net) in Massachusetts for example.

Once you get to the $70,000 range and up, it's not unusual to fall in the 50 to 55% bracket in Federal Taxes.

And yes you can expect to pay from 20 to 30% of your wages for health insurance, plus the co-pays mentioned by hooked. There are also co-pays on most prescription drugs.

I also failed to mention Property Taxes should you change your mind and decide to buy a home some day.

Don't get me wrong, I love this country and wouldn't trade my citizenship for anything, but when I sit and analyze the total taxes that I pay out, I'd guess that it's in the range of 60% of total income, minimum.
Dennis-

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Desertpig,

I couldn't agree with you more.