The break-even salary: how low can the European offer go before you say no?

By Skyler Bissell · July 13, 2026 · Updated August 2026 · 5 min read

Every offer abroad has a floor. It's the lowest gross the new city can pay and still leave you with the same net cash you keep today. Hit that number, or clear it, and you're whole. Drop under it and the move quietly costs you money, however good the espresso is. The floor has a name, the equivalent salary, and it usually lands between two bad guesses: lower than the recruiter fears you'll demand, and higher than you're quietly hoping for.

What the break-even salary is

Your break-even salary is the gross in the target city that leaves you the same net cash you keep now, once two things come out of it. First, the taxes you'll actually pay there. Second, the costs that change when you move: rent or a mortgage, childcare after whatever the state chips in, healthcare, and the cash value of the time you get back in vacation and paid leave. Match your current net cash and you've found the floor. Clear it and the smaller sticker number is a raise.

This is the same figure we call the equivalent salary across the rest of the site, pointed at one decision: the lowest offer you can say yes to without going backward.

Why it's lower than the recruiter fears

Recruiters anchor on gross. They line up $150,000 in New York against an €84,043 number in Berlin and brace for you to walk. What that comparison skips is everything your New York salary was quietly buying that the Berlin salary gets for free or close to it.

Think about where a chunk of that $150k goes: health insurance premiums and deductibles, daycare at full private rates, the two weeks of vacation you're rationing. In Berlin those are public, capped, or generous by law. Push those costs toward zero and the gross you need to match your net cash falls with them. The safety net does work the salary does not, and none of it shows up on the offer letter.

Why it can run higher than you hope

The safety net doesn't make Europe free, though, so don't pack yet. Single filers get the rough end of a lot of European tax systems: no joint brackets to split income into, no dependents to claim, full marginal rates climbing fast. City rent isn't the steal people picture either. Both drag your floor back up.

That's why Amsterdam breaks even at €115k for the exact same New York salary, while Berlin needs about €84k and Lisbon lands between them at €97k. Same person, same life. Amsterdam's rent is the whole story at the top end. Lisbon's cheap apartments get eaten by the steepest tax curve of the three. The number sits in a range you can plan around, above your hopes and below the recruiter's fears.

What $150k in New York breaks even at

Run a single filer on $150,000 in New York through the engine and the floor lands in three different places, each a net-cash equivalent that matches the worked page for that city:

• Berlin, about €84k. The lowest of the three. Public healthcare and rent under half of New York's do most of the lifting. See NYC vs Berlin.
• Lisbon, about €97k. Cheap to live in, expensive to be paid in. Its rent now runs above Berlin's, and Portugal's tax take is the steepest here, so both lines lift the floor past Berlin. See NYC vs Lisbon.
• Amsterdam, about €115k. Rent, mostly: €38,100 a year against Berlin's €20,856. See NYC vs Amsterdam.

Same salary, same person, three floors tens of thousands of euros apart. That spread is the whole point: the country decides most of your break-even before you've negotiated a single cent.

Find your own floor

Those three are one salary in one city. Yours is a different setup: your income, your household, your rent, maybe kids, maybe a working partner who changes the tax picture entirely. Every one of those moves the floor. Put your real numbers in and find your own floor in about two minutes. Clear it and take the raise. Fall short and you'll know the exact size of the gap, which is the number to hand back across the table. The scripts for handing it back, and the trades to offer when the base is capped, are in how to negotiate a relocation salary.

FAQ

What salary do I need to break even moving to Europe?

The gross that leaves you the same net cash you keep now, after the new country's taxes and the costs that change when you move: housing, childcare net of subsidy, healthcare, and the value of time off. For a single filer on $150,000 in New York, that floor is roughly €84k in Berlin, €97k in Lisbon, and €115k in Amsterdam.

Is a lower European salary always a pay cut?

No. It's only a pay cut below your break-even salary. Above that floor, a smaller gross can leave you with the same net cash or more once capped childcare, public healthcare, and real paid leave are counted. Below the floor, the move costs you money however good the offer looks on paper.

How do I calculate my break-even salary?

Start with your current net cash after tax and the costs that move, then find the gross in the target city that matches it under that city's taxes and prices. By hand that means modeling two tax systems and a stack of benefits, so most people run their salary through cityparity's calculator and read the equivalent number straight off the result.

Does the break-even salary include childcare and healthcare?

Yes, and they're two of the costs that move the most. The engine nets childcare against public subsidy and legal caps, and it counts healthcare as the premiums and out-of-pocket you'd actually pay in each city. For a family, childcare alone can swing the floor by tens of thousands, which is why a real break-even number comes in under a naive salary-to-salary comparison.

Sources. Income-tax brackets come from each country's authority, including the Dutch Belastingdienst and Germany's Bundeszentralamt für Steuern. The break-even (equivalent salary) method is in the methodology; compare take-home pay by country.

Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; currency rates, subsidy caps, and tax rules move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. See the methodology.