How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Remote Developer in Europe?

Most US founders compare a European developer to a US developer by looking at one number: salary. That comparison is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that consistently makes the US hire look cheaper than it is.

Here is the honest breakdown of what each option actually costs over the first twelve months.

The US number is never just the salary

When you hire a US employee at $130,000, you do not spend $130,000. You spend closer to $160,000 once the employment costs land. Three things drive the gap.

Employer payroll taxes

FICA alone takes 7.65% of every salary dollar from the employer side. Add federal and state unemployment insurance and most companies land near 9%. On a $130,000 salary that is roughly $11,700 before the employee sees a cent.

Health insurance and benefits

The 2025 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average annual premium for single coverage at $9,325, with the employer carrying most of it. Add a 401(k) match, dental and vision, and benefits become the single largest hidden cost of a US hire.

Equipment and overhead

Laptop, software seats, HR administration, compliance. Individually small, together a few thousand dollars a year.

The European contractor number is the number

A European remote contractor works differently. You pay one monthly invoice. Payroll taxes, insurance and benefits are the contractor's own responsibility in their home country. The rate you agree is the cost you carry.

For most roles, a comparable European contractor runs $60,000 to $72,000 a year. Same seniority, same output, roughly half the loaded cost of the US hire.

What you are actually paying for at each level

• Junior to mid engineer: typically $42,000 to $60,000 a year across Poland, Portugal, Romania and the Baltics.
• Senior engineer: typically $66,000 to $90,000, depending on country and specialisation.
• Design, marketing and operations roles: typically $36,000 to $60,000.

These are contractor rates, not salaries, so there is nothing to add on top.

The cost nobody budgets for: the wrong hire

The US Department of Labor estimates a bad hire costs about 30% of first-year earnings, before you count severance, team morale and lost momentum. On a $130,000 role that is close to $39,000 evaporating.

This is the real reason cheap hiring is expensive. The savings on paper disappear the moment you pick the wrong person, and on a do-it-yourself search that risk sits entirely with you.

Is the quality actually comparable?

For remote knowledge work, yes. European universities produce strong technical graduates, English fluency in the professional class is high, and the best people there compete globally for remote roles, which keeps standards up.

The genuine risk is not talent quality. It is selection. Picking the right person out of a large, unfamiliar market is a vetting problem, and vetting is the part most founders underestimate.

Timezone is a feature, not a compromise

European contractors typically overlap 4 to 6 hours with the US East Coast and 1 to 3 hours with the West Coast. Most work 9 to 6 local time, which gives you a real midday window for stand-ups, live collaboration and customer calls, then hands back your evening.

Run your own numbers

Rather than take these figures on trust, put your actual role into the US vs Europe salary cost calculator. It compares three paths side by side: hiring in the US, finding European talent yourself, and hiring through us, with payroll taxes, benefits and overhead included.

The short version

A US employee costs roughly 1.25x their salary once loaded. A European contractor costs exactly what you agree. For most roles that is a saving of around 50%, and the saving is only real if the person is genuinely good, which makes vetting the part worth paying attention to.