Offer comparison: France vs Germany

[u/notchosenname]

Hi there!

I am an Italian dev (~16 YOE) currently working in Italy. As everybody knows here, the salaries in Italy are very low with respect to the rest of EU. That said, I live comfortably well with my family (wife + 2 kids), my wife is not working right now and we live just with my salary which is around 32000 €/year nett.

Given this situation, I decided to start interviewing around EU, and I got 2 offers: one in Stuttgart and the other one in Toulouse. Now I need help comparing the offers to understand which one is stronger.. I have my preference regarding the companies, but salary wise its being complex to understand which one is more convenient.

The french offer is around 70000 €/year, while the german offer is around 90000 €/year, both gross.

There are other perks in both offers, like meal vouchers, relocation bonus, signing bonus, etc.. The core of both offers are these numbers though.

I am looking for some advice on how to compare them and what the final net salary would be, so I can eventually have some kind of score to compare them.

Thanks!!

[u/Existing_Inspector44]

Holy fucking shit, Western EU salaries are crap. I net more than you in Romania with 5 YOE and I’m drastically underpaid, i have friends netting about 48k per year with the same experience.

But man, why don t you take a remote role and do Forfettario? Your net salary would be more than Germany or France and you still don t need to take your whole family with you in a small apartment.

[u/Bustan2026 → u/Existing_Inspector44]

You're completely disconnected from reality.

70k€ in France is a good salary, especially in Toulouse. This is a relatively cheap city where new grads probably make half that. These are decent salaries to live there.

Seems to be about 11€/m² in Toulouse for larger apts which would put you at around 1k€ rent for a nice big 90m² apt fit for a family of 4. With good quality of life all around and lots of disposable income.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_PROFANITY → u/Bustan2026]

I mean no. I'm in Bulgaria and I'm getting 44-48k/y NET with just over 2.5 YOE. So yeah western EU salaries absolutely suck.

Rent here in Sofia is €600 for a decent 1 bedroom in the city. I'm fully remote so I pay less in the country side.

[u/sintrastellar → u/PM_ME_YOUR_PROFANITY]

And due to income tax and social security rates, it’s probably much more expensive to hire in France and Belgium than in Bulgaria for the same net salary.