<p>hi all
if an engineer makes around 80 k annually according to US news or Forbes or whatever.
does the 80 k include taxes?? I mean is the number 80 after taxes or before??</p>
<p>The salaries that are typically discussed are before taxes are taken out.</p>
<p>Before. And 80k in silicon valley or NYC is very different from 80k in Austin or Cincinnati.</p>
<p>can you guys be more specific ?? because I am not from the US and need some details.
what would the 80 k be after taxes??</p>
<p>You deduct the federal, state, and city taxes if there are any. </p>
<p>Google the federal rate, then the state rate, and see if there is a city income tax (NY city has one) add them and that is your effective tax rate. </p>
<p>There are also payroll tax. </p>
<p>Just ask your employer what the tax percentages will be when you get hired. Expect to lose 35-45% due to taxes depending on where you live.</p>
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<p>It can vary a lot based on where you live within the US, but a good rule of thumb would be that you lose about 1/3-1/2.5 of your income to taxes. So 80K would become something around 48-53K post tax.</p>
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As others have implied, that is hard to say. At the federal level, there are a lot of exemptions and conditions depending on your personal status - home ownership, parenthood, high medical costs can all reduce your tax burden, for example. At the state level, each state charges a different rate and many have at least some deductions of their own. At the local level… well, some localities have an additional income tax rate, others don’t.</p>
<p>Ultimately, until you have competing job offers in hand, this is too complex to really deal with. Get some offers, compare tax rates, compare cost of living, and then it will mean something.</p>
<p>If you’re in Europe, remember that the economy over here is a bit different in general. Gas is much cheaper, goods and services are less expensive in general.</p>
<p>Purchasing power is what really matters, not outright salary</p>
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<p>***!!!
I thought it would be around 70 or something , they take all your salary as a tax 
lol
but seriously if I am going to live in the US in the future I wouldn’t mind the gov take that much because they provide you a lot of services.
long live America.</p>
<p>cheers;</p>
<p>Cincinnati has Jungle Jim’s, IKEA, and Parts Express. Beat that, Austin :)</p>
<p>Single people making decent money pay a lot of taxes - the ‘good’ states have their own sales or state income tax, the ‘good’ cities often have local income taxes, and the cost of living in the ‘good’ cities will also kill’ya.</p>
<p>Yeah, Austin is only a second Silicon Valley with reasonable property prices.</p>
<p>That said, I grew up in N. Ky and believe Cincinnati rules and is the only part of Ohio worth living in, and I’ve never been to Austin yet, but for sheer volume of career opportunities for anything computer/tech-related, Austin is high on the list.</p>
<p>The only reason I’d ever move to Austin would be for the food… But don’t believe everything you hear. There’s many people that flock to all those high tech havens only to find the jobs are not as plentiful as they’d like…</p>
<p>And you live in Columbus, stop complaining :). Dublin is pretty decent and there’s a lot of high tech jobs there. </p>
<p>BTW, YYaaSSeeRR, if you think that we in the US get anything for the taxes we pay in the US, I have a wonderful collection of bridges to sell you… My buddies in Germany pay more or less what we pay in taxes and make more or less what we make (say within 10%) and they have so many freebies it is not even funny.</p>
<p>OP, what type of engineer? i don’t believe a new college grad in CS or EE makes $80k. not in the bay area. i work for a large software company. the starting salary for MS is around $65k (BS is around $55k). pays are higher at startups but you will be working 24/7.</p>
<p>also, if you need sponsorship (H1 visa, etc). your pay will likely be less.</p>
<p>A MS from Stanford/Berkeley makes 90k-100k easy. Look at the school’s employment data to verify this: [Stanford</a> Salary Statistics | Student Affairs](<a href=“http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/jobs/salary-grads]Stanford”>http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/jobs/salary-grads)</p>
<p>Your experience is not representative.</p>
<p>Honestly, you don’t even need an MS for that range at some companies.</p>
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<p>examples please.</p>
<p>To start out with you have the larger/more famous Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and probably Apple. Beyond that, well-established Silicon Valley firms and startups (Twitter, Palantir, Dropbox, Box, Quora, etc.). This is just what I’m familiar with, though; there are probably a ton of other classes of companies that fit the bill. Not many companies will break the six figures barrier, but I think $90k is a very approachable number.</p>
<p>It also depends on whether you include starting bonuses and equity, which can amount to quite a lot.</p>
<p>Caveat: Most of these jobs will also be located in places that have a high cost of living.</p>
<p>Yeah, Columbus has a lot of engineering jobs…if you want to work for a bank or a tractor company or something.</p>
<p>If you want something cool you either need to be a professor at OSU or move.</p>
<p>Though there are some cool gigs in Dayton, if you’re willing to work for a defense contractor.</p>
<p>lets say the starting salary for an average student will be 60 k,if the taxes are 35% then you will have 39 k after taxes so 39/12=3.2 .
I don’t see 3.2 k as a high-paying salary,I don’t think engineering is high-paying field anymore but gonna do it because I love it.</p>
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“High-paying” is a comparative term, and when you are comparing to other jobs you can get with just an undergraduate degree from an average university, then it definitely still is - remember that there are a heck of a lot of college graduates in the US who would be happy with $3.2k/ month before taxes! And there are certainly better-paying jobs out there, but they all come with pretty big caveats - “elite” schools, graduate degrees, variable income, insane work conditions, or lotto-like chances of getting hired.</p>
<p>But “because I love it” is a much better reason to do it anyway.</p>