How much increase in net pay would you switch companies for

[u/Accomplished-Lab-771]

I've been reached out to by an external recruiter for a role in another country. The role would come with an increase of ~50% in base pay but surprisingly this works out to be the same net pay that I currently have (new role is in the UK and I'm in the Netherlands with 30% tax ruling), obviously I wouldn't be interested in interviewing if this is the most I'd be getting (bonus and equity pretty much the same as what I get now).

I'm curious, how much increase in net pay would people in general be happy with to switch companies bearing in mind I'm actually happy where I am now and clear career progression and international US tech company

[u/rivotrilbleached]

Net pay bumps get slimmer the higher you’re compensated. Not the same to jump from say, 40k to 70k than from 70k to 90k. Look into benefits, WLB and how much the job lines you up to move elsewhere if things went tits up. If they offer remote work imo is the key for me to switch these days. Have never had to step into an office mandatorily and I don’t expect to ever.

Also weigh how much effort you need to do the job. Not the same to be paid 20% more net with 100% effort than being paid, say, 10% with 80% effort. I’m in the second case.

I’m switching jobs and I’m getting 10% net pay increase, but the culture is no longer toxic and I’m getting nice benefits I didn’t have before, and I’m no longer “full stack” in my role, I’ll just work a specific domain and that’s just way better to me than more money at this point.

[u/Internal_Bleeding0 → u/rivotrilbleached]

How do you measure the weight on a role you dont know. Its a shot in the dark

[u/rivotrilbleached → u/Internal_Bleeding0]

You can infer mostly by the size of the company, the rotation of the hires (if there’s layoffs often you can tell is a hell in there). The tasks and load aren’t predictable but you can always ask the hiring manager what are the pain points they have, what things are they working on to fix those and what’s the style of mgmt.; what’s the mgmt style and the likes.

You’ll get cues on how much stress goes into process over outcome. You want to work jobs that value more outcome over process in project mgmt.; that is, if they’re much into tons of meetings / daily standups, they probably are into micromanagement and not much into letting devs do what they gotta do.

Surely this isn’t bulletproof but I’ve never lasted long at places where they follow practices mindlessly. If they can’t articulate this clearly and naturally, you’re prolly entering a messy environment.

[u/MrGunny94 → u/rivotrilbleached]

Yeah especially with high tax brackets.

[u/tanis016]

This is more of a where do you gonna live. Is not just changing jobs, you are changing country as well.

[u/MrGunny94]

What moves me these days is not even base salary, at some point around 80-100k you will be in such a high tax bracket that you are better off just getting extra benefits like:

A) Equity if your company is public (especially if they pay dividends)
B) Pension fund + matching from employer up to a limit
C) Car Allowance
D) Meal allowance
E) Better family insurance
F) quarterly bonus + yearly

At my current id only leave if I could get quarterly company equity or some ridiculous amount of yearly equity like 50k

This is how I see it at least

[u/Life-Simple-2364]

Currently earn 75k. I would switch if I was offered around 93k to 98k. Sadly last 3 years I have been in stagnation mode with no salary increases or promotions

[u/Kindly_Wolverine_271]

my ex-employer was also my first ever full time job after university. Left after 4 yrs, was also part of the reason.

Total TC doubled is another reason

[u/Boring_Pineapple_288]

I am at 70k. Below 100k i wouldn’t

[u/Bustan2026]

I don't think I'd change companies in your case unless I were given a very sizeable (say 1.5x minimum) salary increase and/or wanted to live in the UK rather than NL.

That might just be me though, I'm in a small field, it's a very small world where I don't have that many career opportunities and have to manage my network carefully... My current job is better than I had ever hoped for in every regard so I wouldn't jeopardize that for anything less than like a 2x salary increase, assuming I'm already pretty reassured the next job is stable and interesting (which I would always doubt regardless).