Will I Earn Enough to Live and Save in France

This is a recent exchange of mails I had with a newsletter reader who wants to come to live and work in France. I can only make comments based on my personal experience and observations and would welcome any input from other readers.

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Hi Tony,

I just discovered your site via a link from http://www.moving-to-montpellier.com/, which referenced your recent post about renting apartments in France.

I am an American software engineer living in Minneapolis currently. My wife and I are interested in moving to France, and I am currently interviewing with a company in Grenoble.

I just wanted to write and say “Merci” for the great website(s), I’m looking forward to reading your other posts this weekend.

I really enjoyed your post, I can’t remember the link, but you had written “Wisely, Paris built their Disneyland outside the city & they plan to keep it there.”. You articulated in that article exactly what my wife and I experienced in France at different times and exactly why we want to move there- in France life is not always judged in terms of money value.

I have one question in particular I’m trying to answer to help assuage some anxiety I have about this move:
I get the impressive that the French generally save a lot of their paycheck, I think I read somewhere that they saved 10%, which is about 11% more than what the average American saves. I also have the impression that food costs are rather high compared to the US, and rent seems a bit higher too (in Grenoble I’ve found 800 Euro seems to be the going rate for a one bedroom place). I have contradictory impressions; a lower salary, a higher cost of living, and yet higher savings rates than in the US.

The approximate salary I have found for my work is about 50K euro in Paris, and less in the provinces, although I’m not sure yet how much less.
Would this be enough to provide for myself and my wife, own a car, and still save money?

Thank you,
Jeff

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Hi Jeff

Income in France is low – average is about 22,000 euro a year – you can get a better idea about income from this site – http://www.worldsalaries.org/france.shtml

However a salary has a lot of social charges paid by the employer – it virtually doubles the cost of employing someone – for this you get the best health care in the world and excellent social services, education etc.

Housing is,expensive, the rent for Grenoble sounds about right, 800 euro a month for an apartment.

Cars are comparatively expensive, as is fuel, about 5 euro a gallon

Food I am told is more expensive than the USA, quality is good and the French are very careful shoppers.

The French are traditionally savers and the 10 percent or so of earnings does not surprise me.

You hit the nail on the head – it is impossible to put a value on the quality of life. With the sort of salary you have been offered you would be considered a wealthy person in France and could live comfortably, but never luxuriously.

Hope this helps

Best wishes

Tony

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Hi Tony,
Thanks for your response. So far my job hunt has yielded nothing. I realize this is a pretty general question, but do you have a suggestions for finding a job in France?

So far I’ve been sending out emails in response to job site listings. I’ve had a couple of calls, but no offers. Some contacts I’ve discussed this with have said the key is to be in France, rather than in the US. Others say the immigration rules in place now will make getting an offer very difficult in France. Others say I should be able to hire myself out as a consultant. Some say I should stick looking for jobs with larger corporations, although my preference is to work for smaller organizations.

If you have any suggestions you’d care to share, I’d be grateful,
Jeff

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Hi Jeff,

It is difficult to find work in France, most companies only recognise French qualifications and it is a fact that they will prefer to employ French nationals, there is supposed to be equal opportunity for European countries, but this is not apparent – for non- European it is much harder to get employment unless you have a skill which is badly needed and not available in France.

To have a chance of getting employment in France you will need complete mastery of the French language and be established in France with good references. French companies generally only recognise an education based on the French baccalaureate.

All I can suggest is reading through as many forums and adverts you can, in French, to explore opportunities – I think it would help if you were based in France. Some areas, like Nice and Grenoble claim to be centers for IT businesses, but in my experience the French are a long way behind other countries in software and IT development – it is not just a language thing. There are many reasons why companies keep their payroll down and automate as much as possible, it is why their industry is the most efficient in production per employee in the world, but service industries lag far behind and are generally inefficient.

I will post on my blogs and see if I can get some more feedback.

Tony