$225,000 in San Francisco ≈ €175,583 in Berlin
Software engineer pay: San Francisco vs Berlin
Equivalence is solved so household net cash matches across both cities, with taxes, housing, childcare, healthcare, food, and travel all included.
The bottom line
- →$225,000 in San Francisco leaves about the same net cash as €175,583 in Berlin for this scenario, after real taxes and living costs.
- →Taxes take 29.0% of gross in San Francisco versus 38.5% in Berlin.
- →The biggest non-cash swing: 5 more vacation days per year in Berlin (statutory).
Where each paycheck goes
Every unit of gross, split four ways. Same net cash, very different shape.
The full receipt, line by line
| Category | San Francisco | Berlin | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $225,000 | €175,583 ($200,209) | equivalent |
| Income + payroll tax | −$65,353 (29.0%) | −€67,514 (38.5%) | a touch higher |
| Housing (rent) | −$43,824 | −€18,468 | ~52% less |
| Healthcare (household) | −$3,680 | −€600 | universal |
| Food & groceries | −$13,770 | −€6,642 | ~45% less |
| Transit | −$972 | −€696 | ~18% less |
| Discretionary | −$10,125 | −€4,536 | ~49% less |
| Travel home | −$300 | −€850 | ~223% more |
| Net cash kept | $86,976 | €76,277 | equal in real terms |
Computed at the city-median tech-worker salary, San Francisco (a senior software engineer). Each figure is in the city's local currency, from the same engine as the calculator; sources are cited per row there.
What changes beyond the money
- Statutory vacation days~15 → ~20 +5
- Total paid days off~26 → ~30
- Paid parental leave12 wks → 40 wks +28
- Healthcare systemEmployer / private → Universal
These numbers use one scenario's assumptions. Plug in your own salary, family size, and lifestyle.
Open the interactive calculator to run your own →No signup. Your salary stays in your browser — we never see it.
Moving from San Francisco to Berlin for a software engineer
$225,000 in San Francisco requires €175,583 in Berlin to match on household net cash. The gap is real, but it is smaller than the nominal numbers suggest once taxes run their course. Progressive brackets compress the after-tax difference faster than a compensation benchmarking site would lead you to believe, because those sites show gross and stop there.
The effective tax rate goes from 29.0% in San Francisco to 38.5% in Berlin. That 9.4-point jump is what the equivalence solver is working against when it finds the matching gross salary.
Unvested equity changes this calculation entirely. RSU value is not modeled in the defaults above, but if you are mid-cycle at your current employer, leaving means forfeiting grants you have already been working toward, and that difference can be larger than the annual take-home delta that drove the comparison in the first place. The Advanced section's "RSU / stock annual value" field is where you plug that number in. Equity-heavy comp favors lower-tax cities at vesting; the after-tax discount gets larger the bigger the grant.
On an employer plan the healthy years feel nearly free; it's the bad year that finds the gap. Berlin is universal, so most of that tail risk goes away. San Francisco still runs $3,680 a year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and none of it shows up on an offer letter.
Berlin engineers get 20 vacation days per year. San Francisco averages 15. That 5-day gap is real money at a senior IC's daily rate, and it does not show up on the offer letter.
No kids, employer healthcare, and a single high-bracket income: this is the configuration that makes San Francisco look best in a head-to-head comparison. It is also the configuration most likely to change. The family scenario page (linked below) models what shifts once childcare and a second earner enter the picture.
Who comes out ahead
You keep 43% of gross there versus 39%. Housing drives most of that gap.
You also get universal healthcare and more paid leave on top of the money math in Berlin. Run the family scenario to see it.
Berlin gives you 4 more paid days off a year and 28 more weeks of paid leave, none of which shows on an offer letter.
Common questions
How much do you need to earn in Berlin to match a $225,000 salary in San Francisco?
About €175,583. cityparity solves for the Berlin gross salary whose net cash (after taxes, housing, childcare, healthcare, and the rest) equals what you keep in San Francisco. It's an equivalence, not a raw conversion.
Is healthcare free in Berlin?
Berlin has universal healthcare, so there are no US-style premiums or large deductibles. cityparity counts that as real money you don't spend, which is part of why the equivalent salary is lower than the raw number suggests.
How much vacation and parental leave do you get in Berlin?
Berlin has about 30 paid days off a year (vacation plus public holidays) and 61 weeks of parental leave. cityparity surfaces these as deltas rather than dollars, because time off is part of the real comparison.
Run your own numbers in the interactive calculator →