From someone with a background in pharma, I have seen many specialist level employees making more than manager level french bosses to the point where they actively manage you out to save money.

I’ve never seen any of my french colleagues telling me how cheap their housing costs are and how nice their commute is on their commute into paris.

Don’t get me wrong, QOL is better and i’m for effectively everything most european countries are pushing for public policy wise (excepting the recent right wing nutty stuff going on.) I have never seen americans making less total comp than europeans for the same role within the same company. I haven’t just worked in pharma either.

We have pharma sales reps making 150k-250k base + commission pay with nothing more than a generic bachelor’s degree. Then they also get a company car, 15k/year insurance, 30 days PTO. No job security though, but that same job security you have is like a great wall of employment where everyone fights for contract roles in the hopes they get converted to internal, right? That’s how it goes in France from what my colleagues have said.