[quote=Pharmanaut;3104]Gross pay is a better guides as everyone's tax is slightly different?
QUOTE]
Not necessarily a better guide: for instance, when I used to work in Belgium (up until 1998), the 40%-income tax band would kick in at £20k+, so you can imagine what a £38k gross p.a. ended up looking like in my purse after Mr taxman had helped himself...
BUT:public services were better, too: public transport was still public and therefore reliable & cheap; there were no waiting lists for hospital treatments, hip replacements etc; my state pension would have been 60% of my average earnings over a 40-year career,tuition fees at university were £400/year, and so on.
To a certain extent, it's true that you get what you pay for...!
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