It's because the most massive costs an American has like healthcare, child care, and higher education are free or vastly less expensive in Europe. Americans spend all their time at work for a very impressive number on their paystub while they're still one accident or illness away from homelessness or bankruptcy. Europeans get higher quality of life/happiness scores and spend far less time slaving away for their boss. Just because the number on your paycheck is bigger, it doesn't mean you're winning.

Not at Walmart. They want their employees to get on government assistance to justify paying them less.

https://factually.co/fact-checks/business/walmart-workers-go...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-among-...

The median salary in the US is $43k for the latest year I see data (2023). Median salary in the Netherlands and Germany was €44-48k or ~$50-55k.

We might make half as much (rather less for me actually) because of our specific industry, but that's not generally true.

What does that matter when cost of living is commensurately expensive?