USA vs Spain: Salaries, Taxes, and Cost of Living - Intermediate Spanish

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Andrés breaks down the key differences between Spain and the USA, comparing salaries, taxes, and cost of living to see which country offers a better financial deal.
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[@DreamingSpanish]

Want to see more videos of Andrés? Head to drming.es/andres for more, or to drming.es/teachers to meet all our teachers!

[@indyschlumpf728]

Too bad I can’t access videos with my account. This problem has only gotten worse in the last two weeks. Today I received 6 log in codes, but was only able to watch two videos.

[@jayramachandran528]

I have the same problem I am a paid subscriber but it thinks am not

[@DreamingSpanish]

@indyschlumpf728 @jayramachandran528 could you send your account email to [e-mail]? We'll look into it!

[@indyschlumpf728]

@@DreamingSpanishI’ve been in contact with Alejandro for two weeks now, and the problem has only gotten worse. As my husband said, “Why would a bot pay for a service?”

[@nathaniellowe1215]

Just to add some clarification to the skit at: 20:40 -> if you show up at the ER in the USA with serious symptoms, they will not turn you away (and I believe are liable if they turn you away and something happens). In fact, the ER will usually inspect people even if they are showing minor symptoms. I have a ton of family that works in the healthcare industry (my grandpa, my 3 aunts, and my uncle) and they all have the same story: they see (or have seen) massive amounts of patients who don't have insurance and can not (and do not) pay for the treatment, but receive the necessary medical treatment.

[@JoanChrislip]

The numbers given for USA salaries per occupation seemed high, but the overall picture was accurate. People in the USA do make more money and pay less in taxes than people in Spain. Statistically, as long as you never get sick, you're financially better off in the USA. If you do become sick or injured, well, you won't be financially better off any more. Medical costs are high here, even if you do have insurance. Thanks for the great content!

[@Theaisa]

Having children is another thing that is very expensive in the US; a quick search tells me that childcare is around 5 times more expensive compared to Spain.

[@olivia.angel_x]

and we definitely have income tax 😭

[@colinbatchelder6742]

Don't get sick, have children or attend college in the USA and you'll survive!

[@IoT_]

​​@@colinbatchelder6742don't get sick in Spain, otherwise you either wait a year for an appointment of a specialist or you go to the private sector and pay the same or even more than in the USA

[@Churro_Douglas]

Didn't anticipate an analysis of the cost of living crisis in my Spanish lesson. Thank you!

[@scotlearnsspanish]

Andrés is killing it! Awesome breakdown! Unemployment in Spain must be really difficult as well as housing prices in certain areas like Madrid and Barcelona. Young people in the US have a tough time with high cost of education and rents and finding a professional job after college (to pay off student loans). And just hope you don't get injured!

[@antonkiva1962]

It is cool to work for the US company and live in Spain :)

[@factionzer0]

Amazing video Andrés. Very interesting topic and the high use of transition words (mientras que, además, hay que, todavía) was very helpful. These words would slow me down in my listening, and I'm starting to pick these words out in sentences more.

[@ferhatemanet-m3b]

Llavamos casi tres años es en valencia y estoy haciendo joven..con la vida tranquila , buen comida , el aire limpio y mucho mas 🎉 vamos andres👍🏿😎 el favorito maestro de dreaming spanish

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

I like these kinds of videos and it was well done. The backround was a little annoying but no big deal. Thanks you for a interesting video.

[@george-q2k]

Me encanta este video. Comparaciones son interesantes, y muy utiles a mi para mejorar mi español. Muchas gracias. Bien hecho, Andres!

[@Jeffelite]

Retiring in Spain seems more and more attractive :)

[@roboutot4839]

Woaw! Creo que es uno de los mejores videos de Dreaming Spanish. Muy bueno trabajo Andrés!

[@andimusicjunkie3990]

Now I will never forget the use of "tanto... como..." 😊

[@LukeRobinson-s7i]

This was great content. It seems pretty accurate too. I think financial forces drive different lifestyles and attitudes between the two.

[@micheleCO]

Great video! I learned a lot WHILE being very engaged!

[@keineahnung1718]

Otra vez un vídeo muy muy interesante y gracioso..Te agradezco mucho por este input. Saludos cordiales desde Alemania.

[@tullulahb4242]

Este es un excelente video, más como este por favor

[@kategilbert7902]

Great video, thanks Andres. Another factor is property tax. I lived in the US and my property tax was over $10k a year, now I live in Andalucía and it is around $200 a year. And our public services, like sports facilities, local events free classes etc are better.

[@BlackHoleSpain]

I'm an IT Systems & Networks Technician in Spain. This position is barely paid €23k/year but I've been unemployed since 2007, 17 years so far. Ageism is a *HUGE* problem in Spain, IT enterprises seldom hire people over 35. IT salaries are lower and lower each year, dangerously approaching to minimum wage. I've seen job offers as low as €16k/year for juniors with no experience, or asking 4 years just to reach €18k/year. Crazy! Even the janitor at my building is getting €21k and he doesn't need to know anything about Windows, Linux, SQL databases, web programming, routers, firewalls and cybersecurity... which are basics for any IT technician and should be paid for, despite the low salaries in Spain.

[@winflip]

how do you survive 17 years unemployment?

[@BlackHoleSpain]

@@winflip Living with my 86 y/o mother at her home, her 420€ pension, and stretching out 15 years of my bank savings for both.

[@IoT_]

Don't tell this to the foreigners. They think we're prosperous over here 😂

[@CedricJustice]

Vivo en los dos paises. Este análisis es fantástico y es como mi experiencia. La clase media, en general, no puede pagar para todos las cuestas de una vida normal. Y mi problema con los EEUU es la diferencia entre los pobres y los otros es un gran cañon de injusticias. La calidad de la vida es tan terrible. EeUu, entonces, es muy insegura con delitos y problemas sociales (y con tarjetas de crédito porqué la vida es más cara que cuanto ganamos). Otra vez, este análisis es muuuuuyyy difícil para hacer. Bravo! buen trabajo!

[@toocat2000000]

That was an excellent video Andrew . I don't really care if the stats are right or wrong or close , it's the content that works , Very interesting and engaging .Works well for Comprehensible Input .

[@jayramachandran528]

I am from India but currently living in the USA. One big problem I see in the USA is in children's education. If you live in a poor neighborhood, housing costs are lower, but the schools are usually not very good. As a result, wealthy people move to better neighborhoods with good schools, and their children often do well later in life. However, children from poorer neighborhoods either drop out or don't perform well in school, creating a vicious cycle.

[@okikokikkgth239]

Then go back to India 🇮🇳 we don’t want u here

[@frenchvanilla343]

This is a very good observation, and it's definitely true. The reason for this is because in most places, property taxes on houses are used to fund schools. So places with higher property taxes (wealthier neighborhoods) get better funded schools, and the opposite is true for poorer neighborhoods. And as you said, this does indeed contribute to a vicious cycle.

[@okikokikkgth239]

@@jayramachandran528 go to India please god go back

[@Jazz_Matazz_1984]

​@@okikokikkgth239 racist?

[@crestalee2496]

​@@okikokikkgth239why would you say that?

[@fosterfoster1218]

For those that purchase their home/apartment, property taxes also much more in the united states (especially in Texas, NY, NJ and California).

[@sweetlolitaChii]

Vivo en una pequeña ciudad de Texas. Pago $800 al mes por un apartamento de 1 dormitorio. La electricidad cuesta alrededor de $140 al mes, el agua y el alcantarillado cuestan $40 al mes y las facturas de Internet y teléfono combinadas rondan los $175.

[@okikokikkgth239]

Bienvenida al mundo sweetheart. Y god blessed u with the best quality of life in the world and u can travel with the most extra cash then any other country . U complain because that’s all u know and ur bored.

[@comprehendeng]

Great content. Thank you.

[@TheresaBeyer]

A big chunk of my taxes (in New York State) are school taxes. I'm talking $13,000 a year. That's in addition to City and County taxes (which are quite a bit less) and state taxes which are more. Additionally as a self-employed person I had to pay both my portion and the business portion (with a small discount.) Health care insurance is also expensive. I really notice how cheap food was when I visited Spain, both in grocery stores and markets and in restaurants.

[@IoT_]

The amount you pay for the school taxes, here the people get annually as PhD researchers

[@Muppetkeeper]

Let’s not forget, in the USA you get maybe 5 days holiday a year in that pay, in Spain it’s nearer 30…

[@TheOneChannelToRuleThemAll]

Depends on where you work. I am in the U.S. and got 13 days of paid sick leave, 22 days of paid annual leave, and 12 paid holiday days last year.

[@JenniferSpanish]

Working for state government, I get 25 days now that I've been there for 20 years, plus 6 days personal leave, plus sick leave (of which you can use unused sick leave to retire up to a year early). I'm also in IT, which, in regards to salary, state government tended to lag behind in until recently.

[@gringoenespanol]

También hay una gran diferencia entre cada estado y cada ciudad en cuanto a calidad de vida, salarios, empleo, seguridad, etc.

[@pabmel4105]

No es solo el salario , también hay que considerar la calidad de vida en esos trabajos , las últimas migraciones de caribeños , centroamericanos , mexicanos , etc etc ., están orecarizando mucho el trabajo en USA , si se trabaja en España como en USA se sale adelante , las migración actual en USA trabajas muchas horas y días en condiciones indignas ( al menos al llegar ,)

[@reidnix]

...excellent video!

[@colinbatchelder6742]

Awesome video!

[@DonVinnys]

Great video! I am so happy that I made a productive decisions about my finances that changed my life forever. I realized that the secret to making a million is saving for a better investment. I always tell myself you don't need that new Maserati or that vacation just yet. That mindset helped me make more money investing. For example last year I invested $70k in stocks and made about $236k, but guess what? I put it all back and traded again and now I am rounding up close to a million. I bought my second house in February and I hope to retire Next year at 45 if all goes well. Thanks to Lander C'Ann for helping me achieve this.’

[@DonVinnys]

SHE IS ON what - pp!

[@DonVinnys]

+120

[@DonVinnys]

1773

[@DonVinnys]

2150

[@JenniferSpanish]

"A penny a day...", as is a favorite saying in my family. I'm 47, and also around that million mark (401K, bonds, small family on the German side that likes to save money) - never trusted stocks that much. heh. Neither did my great-aunt from what I remember.). I love my job too much to retire, though, and I wouldn't trust 1 million to last another 40 years ("in this economy????").

[@niconikko]

Just me noticing things and was wondering at around 14:51, is it actually $650 - $1,100 per month? Because it showed $1,000 to $1,900 and I'm confused 🤔

[@BlackHoleSpain]

It seems he duplicated the previous caption about Madrid. The speech talks about Seville instead, a cheaper town.

[@bajanalpha4]

That’s correct

[@Gojiraglix]

Where are you pulling those monthly salaries from?! Must be a super HCOL area like SoCal/NYC. No way a teacher in US is making 5k a month. I was a school teacher in florida, the highest paid person in my county was making at BEST 5k *gross* pay - and that's with a masters, 10 years experience, and teaching 6 classes. MCOL city, wage needed to live on your own here is about 60k a year. Medico, 240-300k? Yeah, sure - if you're a specialist after 7-10 years of post med school training and are really really good. Great video, but the numbers are just whacko compared to 98% of most actual salaries.

[@SimplyChinese]

Don’t worry about the exact numbers. We all know different states have vastly different numbers as well.

[@sbruno636]

They may have pulled "average" numbers instead of "mean" numbers, which would mean that salaries at the upper end of the spectrum pull the entire average up, and it gives a slightly misleading view.

[@PeterLapin24]

Teacher salaries are actually higher per month when you factor in all the school holidays and summers off. 😜

[@Top-Kek]

Quiero ganar dinero de E.E.U.U. y vivir en España jaja. Gracias por el video!

[@SpanishLearning-r5u]

Just some feedback, the rotating background made me kinda dizzy.

[@neilwaldock6272]

Can I get off this ride?!

[@indyschlumpf728]

Paying for membership but unable to access their premium videos. DS has been contacted. Unfortunately they don’t respond to my messages and have not fixed the problem.

[@callam4336]

You’re surely using the actual website to access them, right?

[@indyschlumpf728]

@@callam4336I’ve logged over 700 hours. Suddenly I’m accused of being a bot and can’t access videos even after logging out and getting a new access code to sign in. They know of the problem. They just aren’t able to fix it.

[@marilyn8490]

ja, ja. El salario de maestro, en mi caso, era muy, pero muy más bajo que el promedio de EEUU...como 30-40% menos. Hay que tener en cuenta que en algunos estados de EEUU, pagan mucho menos del promedio. Sobre todo, si vives en un estado "right to work", sin sindicato, así es. Los maestros solteros necesitan segundo empleo y compartir un apartamento para ganar lo suficiente. Además hay que obtener seguros de salud (si tienes suerte, con la empresa que te contrata) y seguros de casa (que hoy en día va subiendo en muchos lugares, dependiendo de los riesgos en tu zona). La vida nos cuesta, claro.

[@TheOneChannelToRuleThemAll]

I don’t necessarily agree with some of the information here, or at least in my experience (and I have lived in 7 states) it’s very inaccurate in multiple ways, but it was fun to watch and the vocab is useful. That is what’s most important for CI for me. Thanks Andrés!

[@lailja21]

Conozco una veterinaria con $250,000 US en deudas 😢

[@PeterLapin24]

Decent overview. A few things you missed or got wrong: property taxes exist in the US, poor people can get free healthcare through Medicaid, anyone can go to the emergency room and will not be turned away because they don’t have insurance, plenty of universities don’t cost $25,000 a year - many are well under $10,000 per year to say nothing of student loan balances being forgiven frequently, and people also have roommates in the US

[@osoperezoso2608]

You won't get turned away but good luck paying that bill. Then it hits your credit, and then? No car, no house. Also, Medicare yes. But the quality of the doctors? Absolutely terrible. My doctors are terrible and I pay 1000 a month for my family.

[@PeterLapin24]

@@osoperezoso2608 illegals don’t have insurance and use ERs like a free clinic. They still manage to send heaps of money back to their home country. Go figure.

[@crestalee2496]

😂

[@crestalee2496]

An emergency room will just patch you up and push you out as soon as they can. Forget getting treatment for anything in an emergency room. Also student loans are very hard to get rid of.

[@PeterLapin24]

@@crestalee2496 In Bankruptcy yes, but there’s something called the student loan forgiveness program. Large federal program. Look it up. Make a minimum payment based on income for the time period 10-20 years depending and the loans are forgiven. Payments can go as low as $0.00 per month and borrowers still get credit for making monthly payments.

[@aram00001]

i think your expenses calculation was inaccurate... it's hard to believe that the expenses in the US are nearly 3 x what is paid in spain.

[@enriqueparedesestafan5686]

¿Dónde está tu Augustina?

[@Jazz_Matazz_1984]

ella esta en la cocina

[@enriqueparedesestafan5686]

@@Jazz_Matazz_1984 Word!

[@gebiete]

Vale de pena hablar sobre abysmal PTO politicos de siglo 19 en Estados Unidos (y en Kanada tambien). US es literalmente un campo de trabajo, 15 dias de vacation es muy bien. Por um poco mas dinero gente trabajan mucho mas aqui y vivo mucho menos.

[@fabricio4794]

É Claro que és El Estados Unidos,pero jo prefiro las chicas Espanholas...

[@iintersergey]

Los impuestos en España son demasiado altos

[@BlackHoleSpain]

El "income tax" entre €60k y €300k es del 45% ... demasiado, al nivel de Dinamarca o Suecia y nosotros no ganamos como ellos.

[@davidguerrero2703]

If you are single without kids then you’ll be way better off in the States

[@Pinetree35]

Great video! I’m always surprised hearing about the “high taxes” in the US. Even a high earning family making $125k a year pays relatively little in taxes compared to many places, especially after deductions, child credits, 401k / IRA / HSA etc contributions. And the US being expensive is often more of a choice (obviously not referring to unexpected medical costs) than “high cost of living” because many families choose to finance multiple new cars and buy 4+ bedroom houses. If that’s what you want, great! But it’s a choice. I think the US is likely more challenging for lower earners due to lack of safety net, but likely much easier for higher earners if you can avoid trying to “keep up with the jones’” (is there a similar Spanish saying?)

[@BlackHoleSpain]

Maybe "no ser menos que los demás" would be an accurate one.

[@pedrosmith4529]

En España ahora mismo estamos viviendo los impuestos más altos de la historia por culpa del socialismo y el comunismo.

[@47crazed]

i think both countries are dealing wioth similar issues 😕

[@sterlinf]

You need to get Pedro Sanchez out

[@pedrosmith4529]

@@sterlinf We do or this is going to end badly.

[@osoperezoso2608]

Would you like to come to the side of capitalism? Where it doesn't matter who you are, if you don't have the money, you'll die from sickness that you can't pay for? Or how about the fact that taxes are high here in the US as well but wait, no free healthcare. Oh and groceries? 1000s a month for a family. Or how about worrying about your kids going to school everyday? We all have similar issues. One isn't better than the other.

[@sterlinf]

@@osoperezoso2608 Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system.

[@sterlinf]

España necessito capitalism.

[@comounaverdura]

La viuda es mejor en España. Te lo prometo.

[@MisterBeeches-dq6nm]

Can you do a video about the obstacles felons, or those with a criminal record, would expect to encounter in each country in regards to finding a job, a place to live, etc.?

[@Cosasdelmundó507]

😢😢en españa el gobierno te saquea

[@FranciscoAlmazánruiz]

Puff, minuto 2 y medio y da un dato falso,los camareros en Estados Unidos viven de la propinas no del salario,Bay Bay

[@LukeRobinson-s7i]

This was great content. It seems pretty accurate too. I think financial forces drive different lifestyles and attitudes between the two.