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I find it crazy that this isn't the case in the US every time I see this topic come up. You always hear about all the benefits of working for a FAANG, but they're too cheap to even cover cost of transport?

In the Netherlands, and probably a lot of other EU countries, transport to work has to be compensated by your employer. If you live within biking distance this means providing you a bike (usually via a service like Swapfiets these days), and otherwise you get your train/public transport costs or fuel costs if you drive a car completely covered. It's even tax-deductible I think, though I've never bothered looking into that option since I just take my own bike to work.

4 comments

FAANG pays very well, and money can be exchanged for goods and services.

I know that having benefits like a free bike feels good, but the total compensation you are getting is much lower than that of people that work for big tech and pay for their own transportation.

Well I don't have to pay for any transporation, 'cause my employer can't decide on a dime to force me into the cage 5 times a week ;) I also only live a 15 minute bike ride away, rather than a 2 hour car ride as seems to be the case for many people in the US.

But even ignoring all that, money isn't the be-all, end-all. Having worked in the US for a stint, I'll take my "low" pay in the Netherlands any day of the week over rotting away in a soulless US megacorp headed by legitimate psychopaths, where they can decide to fuck you over at a moment's notice for any reason and you have no recourse.

After all, what good is money that you can't spend? If you gave me a trillion dollars but it meant I had to spend 12 hours of my day dedicated to work, what use is that? I'll take my sane working culture I have at the moment despite me earning marginally less (if you ignore literally all the other benefits of living in the Netherlands, that is) all day, every day.

> rather than a 2 hour car ride as seems to be the case for many people in the US.

The Netherlands has good bicycle infrastructure but the majority of people still go to work by car.

The commute time between countries is similar.

well, in the netherlands, the median income is roughly 1/2 what i was making at my first job out of college.

considering i also got free lunch everyday, 24 days of PTO, monthly stipends for gas and app subscriptions, 6 month parental leave, it’s pretty hard for me to look at the european market and see the government mandated some of those benefits but to pay for it i’d make roughly 1/3 to 1/2 what i make in the US, and subsidize the poor performers to boot. literal fucking joke to compare europoor salaries with american lol

You are being crude about it, even though you have a good point. The problem with this perspective that I used to also share is that either advantages are largely in the process of collapsing at the moment, i.e., more money in the US and more quality of life in Europe.

Inflation from money printing and immigration is eating away higher salaries and lower costs that made suffering the corporate hell tolerable for many people; and in Europe money printing and immigration is going to collapse the social welfare and quality of life fabric of society.

i’d argue the US is too business friendly relative to pretty much everywhere for us to get worse at a pace faster than EU, which means relatively, we’re always doing pretty good. until another global superpower comes along

I'd take the trillion. Think of the good you could do!

Responding to hyperbole is hardly adding to the discussion.

Money isn't everything. People claim it is are often missing something money can't really buy.

If you are unhappy while wealthy you would probably be unhappy without wealth as well, perhaps more so due to the financial stress. Either way, I would rather be unhappy with money than without.

The Netherlands does not have transport cost compensation by law. Various unions have negotiated it for their members and a lot of people have it as part of their compensation package, but it's not mandated by law that a company should pay you for your travel cost.

A company is also not mandated by law to provide you with a bicycle.

You also do not get your cost fully covered if you drive by car. Currently it's capped at 23 cents per kilometer which is not enough for most cars.

It's not a tax deductible, it's just (income) tax free.

That's my mistake then, since I've never worked at a company here that didn't compensate you and assumed it was a given! I can no longer edit my comment unfortunately, otherwise I'd point this out there as well.

I am pretty sure the poster you reply to talks about time not money.

Most tech companies compensate for costs. My current employer doesn't blink paying ~$60 per day for my parking and lunch on days I come to the office, but that still means I spend 50 min each way getting there. My 2c.

It’s all relative. FAANGs have been very high compensation (and good work environments) by US standards, and frankly in comparison to most global standards.

But they aren’t perfect, and they’ve been good relative to other employers.

Having transportation covered is an extremely rare benefit in the US.