Presumably because an ambitious young person in southern Europe would rather move somewhere like Zurich for higher pay rather than getting paid less in southern Europe? Who are those R&D centres going to end up hiring?
People don't move if their lives are decent enough.
If FAANG sets up shop in Milan and pays 80k compared to the local average of 40k, few people would rather move to Zurich for 150k and have to learn Swiss German and have worse weather and few local friends.
For comparison, Eastern Europe has FAANG offices and people working there generally don't move as much, and the few that do leave, generally go to Switzerland (ok) or the US.
But those are the ultra ambitious, maybe 10-20%, and they generally leave because Eastern Europe has a lot of other structural problems that aren't really there in say, Spain, for example Eastern Europe has pretty bad healthcare in general, infrastructure is much worse than in Spain, general quality of life is also worse than in Spain.
> If FAANG sets up shop in Milan and pays 80k compared to the local average of 40k
I see this types of claims on HN frequently. This looks "too easy". Why isn't Big Tech setting up offices in large southern European cities to do exactly this?
I don't know, that's why I'm asking. My guess would be that they didn't get tax incentives or other behind the scenes things that we rarely find out about.
Generally, if you have a substantial presence somewhere, you become liable for a bunch of taxation stuff.
That being said, it's probably also non-English as a first language.
Note that the vast majority of tech in Europe is either in Ireland (tax reasons) or London (city known to Americans), both of which are English speaking.
Switzerland is interesting, in that it's not English speaking. I know that FB generally just set up Eng offices wherever Google did, so the real question is why Google set up there.
Europeans hate moving. They're not like the European diaspora, they will live within a days drive of Switzerland, all their life, and never even consider the concept of trying to make a life there to earn 2-5x as much.
Everyone hates moving if their lives are good enough. They generally only move because they think their environment has structural problems that can't be solved within, say, 5 years. For example: bad healthcare, generalized low level corruption, bad infrastructure, bad air quality, no opportunities, etc.
Americans are probably the only developed people that will move en masse just to make a bit more money, and even that's because there's no language barrier and hardly any cultural barrier. Plus it comes with downsides, no support network in the new place, if you're out of a job... things can become extremely sketchy.
Americans don't move en masse. They move as individuals. Lots of people in the UK move to London to make money. Move to the capital, make your pile, leave at 50 and buy a big house.
Moving in Europe is not like moving in the US. Language is the big one ofc, but the cultures are vastly different compared to US states. That doesn't mean it not worth it, but it adds a layer of friction.
