Idaho to Germany: A Love Story

This past April, my family and I decided to relocate to Heidelberg, Germany from our home in Caldwell, Idaho, USA. I am a backend engineer, and when I was offered a new job at Getsafe, I jumped at the opportunity. When we announced that we were moving to Germany, many of our friends and family could not understand why. Then, when we went back to the States for a wedding, we were again met with disbelief at our decision from both Americans and Germans alike. Even here, at Getsafe, I have been asked by many people why I would choose to leave the States to come to Germany when I could make so much more money back home.

It’s true–I could make much more money in the United States than I could in Germany. Especially since many developer jobs are now fully remote, I could easily get a high paying job in a tech hotspot and then decide to live anywhere that I want in the United States. The average backend engineer in Germany makes between €47k and €80k¹ while in the US, that same engineer would make anywhere from $108k to $128k². That is quite a big difference.

So why, then, did my family decide to move to Germany despite the lower salary? Honestly, it wasn’t even a difficult decision for us. The answer lies in what we value most, and I can tell you, money is definitely not the most important thing.

Family will always be mine and my husband’s top priority. You might be asking: how is moving to Germany the best for your family when all your relatives still live in the States? And trust us, they asked. It was very hard to leave them.

In fact, that was the only hard part of our decision. But, for Michael and I, the “family” that we wanted to put first was our daughter Edith. It is amazing what having children does and how your priorities shift. And we really believe that raising our daughter in Germany is the best thing that we can do for her.

First off, we preferred the German education system overall, and the opportunities that would be afforded to Edith here. In the States, good primary and secondary schools can be hard to find unless you are willing to pay a lot of money. Where we lived in Idaho, education was severely lacking. Schools could teach just about anything that they liked, and there are still debates about whether evolution should be taught in schools, even though it is the basis for modern biology. While the German education system isn’t perfect and curriculum greatly varies from state to state, we still believe that Edith will have the opportunity for a better education experience here in Germany.

Studies show that there are many benefits to being bilingual³ beyond being able to communicate with more people. You can learn a second language in the States, but it is significantly harder than in Germany, where being bilingual would be a given. For our daughter — her schooling would be in German with formal English classes, but we would speak English at home and with her grandparents. Also, living in Europe allows us to expose her to many different languages and cultures because of the close proximity of countries.

This proximity brings me to the next big advantage of living in Germany: travel. It is very easy to travel between countries and experience different cultures in Europe. In the States, you get glimpses of culture in large cities that try to preserve their original culture. Sadly, it’s still not the same experience as traveling. Travel and historical sites are really important to Michael and I — small trips open up so many possibilities, even on the weekends. This also provides us with the opportunity to develop a wider world-view for Edith, as history taught in both the American and German systems is quite nation-centric⁴.

Finally, the biggest factors in our decision? The work culture and social safety nets in Germany are top-notch compared to those of the United States. Neither system is perfect, but for us, the benefits of the German system outweigh the disadvantages.

At my current job, I get 28 days of paid holiday and unlimited paid sick days. Now, in the United States, it is popular to have “unlimited paid vacation”, especially for careers in tech. But I actually prefer the structured, guaranteed time off instead.

With unlimited vacation, it is up to your manager’s discretion whether or not you can take time off. It could be a lot, and it could be a little. In Germany, that time is protected by my contract, so I can count on getting that time off — even if I want to take most of it at one time. Also, the work culture in Germany means that when I am on holiday, I can completely unplug from work and not have to worry about checking in unless I want to — something that is hard to find in the American tech world.

Sick time in the States varies from state to state, but places like Idaho don’t even require your employer to give you any paid sick time! The first time that I got sick here in Germany, my manager had to tell me to take the day off because I was so used to working when sick, especially when you can work from home and there is no danger of infecting others. It was a very refreshing change.

My job itself is protected in Germany. Once the probation period passes at work (which I completed in October), if the company decides that they no longer want me as an employee, they are contractually obligated to give me three months notice and they have to have a good reason. This is in heavy contrast to the States, where an employer can give you no notice at all — one minute you have a job and the next– you don’t. Even though this is an unlikely situation to be in, it’s attractive to have a guarantee when you are the main provider for your family.

Giving birth to my daughter in the States was honestly a terrible experience. Not in health care, necessarily, since I loved my midwife, and everything medically went well. But it was my “maternity leave” and hospital bills that caused my husband and I to reconsider having more kids. Unless you live in one of a few select states, the only maternity leave that you are entitled to in the US is 6 weeks of unpaid leave. Anyone having a child knows, 6 weeks is barely enough time for your body to heal, if you are the main earner for your family (like I am), it’s nearly impossible to afford to take 6 weeks with no pay. Thus, during my pregnancy, I saved every second of my 2 weeks of paid holiday to take as my “maternity leave” and used that instead. So I got 2 weeks off and then worked 2 weeks at half-time (and, consequently, with half pay), and then I was back at work full time. Fast forward a couple of months to when we got the hospital bill — and I regretted doing those 2 weeks of part time instead of going back fully.

In hospital fees alone, the pregnancy cost us almost $12k out of pocket, on top of the $500/month we were paying for our health insurance policy. Now, if we decide to have another kid, Michael and I would have 14 months of paid parental leave (to divide between the two of us) and there would be no hospital bill because our German insurance will cover all of it.

Childcare costs in Germany are much lower. For one child in the United States, daycare costs an average of $226/week⁵ (40 hours/week). We are paying €400/month for our daughter’s daycare in Germany (45 hours/week). Depending on your income threshold, though, our city will give you a voucher for a portion of this cost, lowering the total. Germany also has kindergeld, which translates to “child money,” that the government pays its parents every month to help with costs of raising children.

University is free in Germany. While the path to university can be complicated if you don’t get into Gymnasium as a child, it is accessible to all. And while some universities in the States have better reputations (i.e. Ivy League schools), most universities in America have famously high associated costs. Four years at my alma mater (Point Loma Nazarene University) would cost $212k ($53k/year)⁶! By going to school here in Germany, our daughter will still have the opportunity to attend university in the States, but she will also have access to free university education, should she want it.

Now, all these benefits are paid for by tax dollars. Taxes are significantly higher here in Germany than in the States, so it might seem like a wash — since I am paying less out of pocket but more in taxes. Also, salaries are higher in the States, so even though costs are more expensive, I should be able to afford it on my high salary, right? Yes, I could afford all of these if I keep working. But what happens if something happens to me and I am unable to work? My husband can work, but his field is not nearly as high paid as mine. And while we can afford all these luxuries in the U.S. on my salary, we definitely could not if we had to rely on his salary alone. After we gain permanent residency in Germany, even if something happens to me, I know my family will be taken care of, and that peace of mind is worth everything.

Other benefits that we enjoy are things like accessibility. Not being required to own a car since there is decent public transportation, being allowed to have a beer in the park, having environmental protections enforced by the government, having access to tons of amazing playgrounds for our daughter, and more public holidays. We like that we have nature all around us, (there’s some great hiking trails near our house!). In the States, we always paid close attention to ensure that we stayed in relatively safe places, but here in Germany, crime is never a worry. As a woman, I can walk alone at night and not feel scared (something that was basically unthinkable in the States).

In summary, even though the decision to move across the world was hard, and we left the United States and its higher pay behind, it was an easy decision for me. It may not be for everyone. The move aligned with our values and allowed for a better quality of life for me, for my husband, and for our daughter.

In the 8 months that I have lived here, I have not once had second thoughts about our decision to move to Germany for my job at Getsafe. While we did have to give up some luxuries, like owning a house with a large backyard, the security and opportunities that Germany provides us far outweigh the costs.

[1]: “Backend Developer Salary in Germany.” GermanTechJobs, https://germantechjobs.de/en/salaries/Backend/all.

[2]: “Backend Software Engineer Salary.” Salary.com, https://www.salary.com/research/salary/listing/backend-software-engineer-salary.

[3]: Vince, Gaia. “Why Being Bilingual Helps Keep Your Brain Fit.” Mosaic, 6 Aug. 2016, https://mosaicscience.com/bilingual-brains/.

[4]: Fuchs, Eckhardt, Why Teach World History in School: Curriculum Reform in German Secondary Education. World History Connected 3.3 (2006): 19 pars. 7 Dec. 2022 https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/3.3/fuchs.html.

[5]: Care.com Editorial Staff. “This Is How Much Child Care Costs in 2022.” Care.com Resources, 23 Sept. 2022, https://www.care.com/c/how-much-does-child-care-cost.

[6]: “Undergraduate Cost & Financial Aid.” Point Loma Nazarene University, https://www.pointloma.edu/undergraduate/cost-financial-aid.