Moscow's supposed to be about as expensive to live in as the Bay Area or Manhattan from what I've read. Rents here in the Bay area are around $1400 for a 1 bedroom apartment. What are they in Moscow?
Salaries for grads outside of Moscow are probably half that - I think PHP coders in Kharkov, Ukraine for example would be pretty happy with 12-15K. QA positions could be as low as 8-10K.
And $1300 for a 1-bedroom in Moscow center...what can I say you got off light. All my friends had to go through realtors for $2K places (2-3 rooms through) near Kitai-Gorod.
How about $5K for 2 years experience PHP developer in Dnepr, Ukraine. I work for this now and my motivation is lost completely. May be I will try to relocate. Now i see even in Dnepropetrovsk salary for html coder for $10K and php dev $14K, but they require strong knowledge of all what can imagine, even speaking english. My bad, need better education.
Sounds to me like prime motivation for a startup. If you're not getting paid much, you have more motivation to try something a little risky to improve your lot in life.
Hey, my lot in life isn't too bad! :-) I launched a non-profit project that's fairly important to me (http://openphotovr.org) this winter. Now thinking about starting something else, for money, not sure what exactly.
Yeah, sorry, I should have said, "South Bay Area" when I was quoting rent prices. I'm assuming things would be quite a bit more expensive in Palo Alto or San Fran. My quote was also based on a new grad wanting to live in El-Cheapo rent districts. If someone wants to, they can certainly pay $2000 a month for a rather nice one bedroom with a concierge at the desk in the South Bay.
You cannot get a studio for $650 in any part of san francisco, much less a nice part. Just go to craig's list and do a search for apartments less than $650. ZERO results show up.
Manhattan had a very successful policy of encouraging diversity by apartment subsidies (Mitchell-Lama). Otherwise, you restrict the area to only those who can "afford" it. I heard recently about someone who sold their apartment back to their rent-subsidized apartment building. A 3br on the Upper West Side. For $12,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell-Lama
Total taxes in the US on a $40K salary for a single person with no other income and no other deductions: about $4,200 (10.5%). The marginal tax rate is higher, of course, and state taxes will add a little, but not too much.
I've payed less than that in income tax on income much greater than that. Legally, that is. According to H&R's calculator, you should be paying under $5k, and thats with no dependents or other similar deductions.
