You thought you had it bad! - try the USA

[garybrun]

here are the Norwegian figues in £ approx... you think England is expencive.

Average wage of a Construction Worker.
Carpenter £3,200 a month with 36%-40% tax
VAT 28%
Price of fags £9
Price of Milk £1.50
Loaf of Bread £2
Normal bus fare £5 (30km)
Standardish Monthly rent. £600 one bedroom apartment per month
Price for a pint £8.50
Price bottle red (cheapest)£6.00
Citroen Belingo (standard) £25,000
Road tax £340



http://www.ukdfd.co.uk
Recording OUR heritage for future generations.

[BAJR Host]

Blimey!!!!!!!!!!!!111

More countries please

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Digger]

Ok, these comparisons are reliable to a certain degree, remember you can fit ALL of Europe into Australia and not scrape the sides! Therefore there is a faily broad range depending on were you live, which State and which city.

Avg annual wage in Queensland £20,914. ($50,425)
Income tax on $50K is around $2850 plus 30c for every $1 earned over $25K. There is also a superannuation scheme were your employer MUST pay a 9% equivalent of your gross wage in to a pension/superannuation fund on your behalf.

Rent-£350 to $410 for a two/three bedroom house in Brisbane.
(Aussies are also entitled to around $7K-$10K government grant towards purchasing their first home (pretty much the deposit)).

2KG chicken- £2.87
Loaf of bread-£0.92
Pint of beer- £1.40-£2
Cigs were around £4-5 for a pack of thirty (a while ago!)
Road Tax for a year is approx- $216 (that should include third part insurance)
Weekly bus pass (Sydney)- £4.50
Petrol a bit below £0.50 a litre (again depends were you live as some states subsidize the price).

Please note that these may not be completely up to date as I haven't been back for a while- going this Xmas so will leave you to the snow for a few weeks!,so some info will be out of date. Not rubbing salt in but you also can get Austudy, while you undertake your first degree, which was a bit less than the dole but you can also earn up to a certain amount without it being affected. Any Aussies out there-please feel free to update these figures.

[i_love_rocks]

Well, have been out of the German system for a while, but there is a national set minimum wage for the construction industry in Germany, which is currently somewhere around 12.40 per hour for the west and 9,80 Euros/hour in east Germany at the top range (this is for skilled workers).
This increases sharply when you get to the construction PO's.

Flat rent is highly variable depending on which part of the country you're in, but I guess an average figure would be somewhere between 400-600 Euros/month.
0.5 litres of milk: 0.55 E
Fags E3.50 (I think - I don't smoke)
Bus fare: ca. E 2,-
Bread: E 2,-

Last site I worked on in Germany had a very low wage, as they were employing largey students (from all disciplines) to cut costs. The vast majority had never even been on a dig before and pay was around 5.50 an hour, but they were only allowed to do 20 hours a week.
I worked on a self-employed basis full time and came out fine at the end, but only because I didn't take out any health insurance...otherwise I would have probably come out with ca. 9 Euros/ hour.

[ross_k]

"And don't forget the US is cheaper to live in than the UK"

UK and US citizen just moved back to Blighty after 6 years living the States. One major reason I came back here is that it is, believe it or not, cheaper to live in the UK than in the US. The NHS may be falling apart, but it's cheaper than $400/month (for two people, admittedly) in health insurance, which is pretty much a necessity considering the price of everything medical over there(and becoming increasingly hard to get through your employer, especially as a shovelbum). Luxuries are generally more expensive in the UK, as is eating out, but groceries are cheaper.

I lived up near Seattle and the wages for an archy in the Northwest aren't too horrendous - I was getting $14/hour (with next to no field experience), which is pretty similar to a trainee wage here. However, I certainly don't remember getting 20 days off per year!!
So, overall, I found that it's cheaper to live here than in the US, plus we get more paid days off. And the archaeology's generally more interesting (to me, at least). Love both the US and the UK equally, but I prefer to be an archy here