I moved to Europe from the Midwest near the beginning of my career (20 years ago).
It's very difficult to compare things like housing, social life and salary without knowing where you're coming from and where you're considering going. Countries in Europe have GDPs per capita ranging from under $5,000/year to over $100,000/year.
Really one of the few things you can say context-free is: you'll have more vacation in virtually any European country.
It's also very likely the healthcare, social systems (unemployment, day-care, etc.) and public transit will be saner. But again, you're comparing two very large, diverse places, and it's hard to reason about them in such generalities.
> Really one of the few things you can say context-free is: you'll have more vacation in virtually any European country.
In tech, at least, this probably is no longer true. In my experience most of the bigger companies have been moving to unlimited vacation. I'm pretty sure that someone in upper management did the math and concluded that employees granted unlimited vacation actually end up taking fewer days than if they are metered.
In a lot of European countries, you're required to take most of your vacation, and 6 weeks a year is not uncommon. Taking 6 weeks would be significantly frowned upon in the US.
Also, again, what you're calling "most tech companies" I assume is "a few on the west coast", and while that's a useful perspective, it's difficult to fit into a discussion where the granularity is "the US", where it certainly is not standard.
While I had a lower salary, I explored the world in my 20s by having a moderate amount of disposable income and a lot of free time.
And fired at will when you do not deliver. So it is basically not a thing. But if you do perform you can get quite some days. If you do not perform, you are fired and have no vacation maybe.
It's very difficult to compare things like housing, social life and salary without knowing where you're coming from and where you're considering going. Countries in Europe have GDPs per capita ranging from under $5,000/year to over $100,000/year.
Really one of the few things you can say context-free is: you'll have more vacation in virtually any European country.
It's also very likely the healthcare, social systems (unemployment, day-care, etc.) and public transit will be saner. But again, you're comparing two very large, diverse places, and it's hard to reason about them in such generalities.