Could you earn more for doing the same job in a different country?
The travel industry has faced several challenges in the last year, as the cost of living and inflation hit alarming levels in many countries across the globe. The beginning of 2022 marked a sense of freedom for some, like in Australia, when the international borders finally opened for the first time in nearly two years after the pandemic, bringing joyful family reunions and a boost to tourism.
As for some countries, the cost of living became even more unattainable, as house prices and consumer goods are continuously on the rise, particularly in the US and the United Kingdom. Workers from around the world may wonder if it's possible to earn better salaries overseas and benefit from a lower cost of living, whilst also getting your travel fix.
Before you make the courageous leap to work abroad, there are many considerations to look at, from visa costs to the heightened need for international health insurance, it's important to consider how moving abroad will impact you and every aspect of your life.
One of the most attractive perks leading people to change jobs is a higher salary, and to work abroad, you may wonder if relocating to another country could give you a better offer. You may find that the same job you are currently doing would pay significantly more, or less, than your current earnings. Combine better pay with a lower cost of living, and you could see yourself much better off, and enjoying all the benefits of living in a new culture all simultaneously.
To help you explore how much your earnings could vary across the world, we’ve decided to refresh our Work Abroad Calculator, in line with updated salaries and comparative price levels in each country.
We will look at the average salaries for different jobs, and how they vary from country to country. We also refreshed the data on the comparative price levels in each country, to indicate which now have the highest and lowest cost of living.
So, which countries could boost your earnings and ultimately offer you a better quality of life?
This calculator allows you to see how much you could earn across 32 OECD countries. Simply select the job title most similar to your own, to discover where you could earn the highest salary for your skill set and experience.
Based on the 33 job roles featured in our work abroad calculator, we wanted to find out which country offered the highest paying salary. We found that Switzerland dominated the field for its high figure salaries in almost every job role we analysed.
Switzerland
Highest paying job roles
United States
Highest paying job roles
Denmark
Highest paying job roles
France
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Germany
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Slovakia
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It’s important to note that while salaries might vary considerably from country to country, the cost of living does as well. Therefore, while one country may offer lower wages than what you are used to, their cost of living might be so low that you end up better off.
With this in mind, here are the ten OECD countries with the lowest comparative price level. These figures are relative, with the average for the whole of the OECD being a score of 100.
So for example, Turkey, with an index of 36, is 64% cheaper than the OECD average.
On the other end of the spectrum, these are the countries with the highest comparative price levels. These countries tend to have much higher salaries, to counteract their high prices, although they do not always correlate in the same way.
Comparative price level:
Turkey is the most affordable country in the OECD, with a comparative price level of 36, compared to the group average of 100. This indicates that if you were to find a job in Turkey for the same salary you are currently earning, you could see yourself about three times as well off.
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Comparative price level:
The country with the highest prices in the OECD is Switzerland, with a comparative price level of 139. Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the group, a fact reflected by prices being 39% higher than the OECD average.
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We have also explored the countries with the lowest average salaries across the varied job roles, which we looked at in our work abroad calculator. While these countries offer much lower wages than the OECD average, their costs of living are likely to also be much lower.
We’ve also looked at the average salaries in each country for the various job roles we explored within the calculator. This allowed us to compare each country based on their average earnings, revealing where you are generally more likely to receive a higher salary.
Average Salary:
Turkey is the country with the lowest average salary across the jobs looked at in our work abroad calculator, at just $6,707. While the figure is extremely low, being just over 50% of the value of second-place Mexico’s average salary, the price levels in Turkey are also the lowest in the OECD, meaning that this salary could go much further than it might in other countries.
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Average Salary:
The OECD country with the highest average salary across all the different jobs in our study is Switzerland, where you would expect to receive approximately $88,630 per year in wages. That is over $20,000 more than the second-place United States, which saw an average salary of $68,222.
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We wanted to find out how salaries differ from country to country. To do this, we used data from Glassdoor to find the average salary in each OECD country for 32 different job roles. These salaries were converted into USD & GBP using xe.com on 01/12/21, so they could be directly compared against each other.
Where these salaries were given as monthly amounts, they were multiplied by twelve to reach an annual figure. Where earnings were given as hourly rates, they were converted to a yearly salary based on a 37.5-hour working week using The Salary Calculator.
Unfortunately, data was not available for every job in every country. Therefore, when calculating the average salaries, job roles were omitted on a case-by-case basis and averages were calculated for the specific number of roles for which data was available in each country.
In addition to looking at the average salaries of different roles, we also included OECD data indicating which countries have the highest and lowest comparative prices. These prices were represented with a comparative price level index, with the average prices across the OECD being set at 100.
Ensure you are protected with international health insurance when planning to relocate.
