Actually though. This is awful. I loved Amsterdam, but I can't imagine why anyone would stay in Europe when even new grads can make >= 4x that in the US.
35k is low even for straight out of university. With a few years of experience it’s closer to 50-70k€ (57-80k$)
That said, when I was doing the math on moving to the states, a +80% increase in salary still left me with less money in NYC vs Amsterdam. (I have kids: healthcare + kids education + rent basically wipes out your income in the US, it doesn’t in Amsterdam)
Well one of the reasons (and it's a dumb one), is that getting a US work Visa is almost impossible for most, so they don't really have a choice, unfortunately.