<prompt> Human: As a french guy, im struggling a little bit on this sub when it comes to salary comparison between FranceEurope and the US.I would be interested in better understanding the differences between our two systems numbers are indicative in absolute value, but accurate in relative value1 The total cost to my employer is 114k. Then you have to discount : Social security 20k Mandatory retirement contribution 6k Is it equivalent to your Roth? unemployment insurance 3k complementary health insurance 1k Other taxes 6k2 My gross salary is 78k this is the salary that everyone talks about, the one you negotiate, on which you get raises and so on. Then you have to discount : Social security 3k Retirement contribution 5k unemployment insurance 3k complementary health insurance 1k Other taxes 5kOut of which my net salary is 61k, on which i pay around 8k of income taxes, which leaves me with a net-net salary of 53kBased on this : I basically have no health expenses I will get 60 of my last salary when I retire If I get fired, I will get 70 of my current salary for at least 12 monthsHow does this compare with you guys? More specifically : Do you have to pay your health insurance basic complementary by yourselves? If you do not contribute by yourselves to a retirement fund, you do not get any income when retirement comes?Bonus question : What kind of impact do you think this couldshould have on my current savings patterns, compared with all the good practices I see on this subreddit.Sorry for the long wall of text, but this is quite complicated. And, by the way, feel free to ask me anything about our glorious French system!Assistant: Yeah there are probably a gazillion ways this works in the US and I dont think it is overly glorious personally. But I was just looking at my pay stub to update my 4Q projections anyway so I can do a comparison, throwaway, I guess based on semimonthly pay days, salaried employee: Regular earnings: 4,917 ST disabilty prem: 14 Employer pays but elected to tax this LT disability prem: 18 Employer pays but elected to tax this Gross pay: 4,949Deductions from pay: Federal income tax 760 Social security tax 304 Medicare tax 71 like health insurance for poor and old State income tax 237 some states do not have income taxOther deductions from pay: Dental 5 LT Disability Premium 14 Medical 37 PPO - employer pays 80 of premiums ST Disability Premium 18 401k regular 295 401k Roth 295 Net Pay 2,913 Other items: Misc 1,181 expense reimbursements Other items: 401k match 148 employer match Other items: 401k wages 4,917 Other items: Group term life 7 Other items: PTO balance: 181 hoursNote: my paystub doesnt show other employer costs and we only get an annual statement of employer costs and I cant remember what it said about total cost to employer. I think the PPO has a 500 deductible. I should have about a 100 refund coming for statefederal in 2014. edit:formatHuman: Thanks, its very interesting to compare on real figures.Just to make sure I understand properly : The salary you guys refer to when saying I make x,000year is the regular earnings or the gross pay or the net pay? The 401k is not mandatory and you elect to contribute to it? Or is it mandatory for a part, and there is an optional part?  <response>: 1 In my case salary is my gross pay ie I make 118,000year. I dont think it is a very clear comparison actually because everybodys case is going to be slightly different. Across states, across industries, exemptnonexemptemployment status, tax elections made, bonuses, country, familydependents, etc.2 401k is definitely not mandatory but when I see a good deal on taxes I take it. The max is 17,500year and the employer matches a portion of it in my case. The mandatory part of retirement is the social security and the medicare taxes. 