Technology

You can't just look at the exchange rate. You have to look at cost and standard of living.

Someone in the US making 100k is not doing as well as someone in France making 70k€

80k plus all of society's trappings of France. Dude, it's not even a comparison. Worker's rights, healthcare, public transit, safety, security...

Listed salaries are almost always what the employee pays, not what it costs the company. In the US, this includes the payroll tax, and cost of "benefits," like healthcare and unemployment insurance, and is referred to as the burdened rate. This is separate from the income tax the employee has to pay to the government, mind you.

The burdened rate for most employees at the companies I've worked for in the US is like 20-50% higher than the salary paid. Not sure exactly how it works in France, but I do know there's a pretty complex payroll tax companies have to pay. I think it's something like 40% at the salary you quoted.

And a 80k$ salary in France amounts to around 125k$ cost for the employer. So 170k$ isn't that much - I actually know French developers and network engineers that make similar money. The French ITsec architect I interviewed last year would have cost me (converted) around 150k$.

So 170k$ is absolutely not out of the normal range here.

Talking about France: The French government could start to properly support matrix.org as they use it for tChap. The same goes for Germany with the "Behördenmessenger"

You can't at all compare unless you reference cost and standard of living. I've managed and hired people in multiple countries. It's not as simple as salary X exchange rate.