jonathanbo

I'm exploring getting a transfer to the USA from the UK within the company I work for. The company I work for has not done this on a regular basis with its employees (not at all in fact going from the UK to the USA) and so there are no comparisons. There would also be some key differences, e.g. needing to fund healthcare (unless the USA parent includes that as part of their packages).

Has anyone moved from the UK to the USA recently as an internal company transfer and how has a package 'equivalence' been calculated? I'm not looking to be better off but clearly don't particularly want to be worse off! There would also be complications for example with the fact that UK salaries can have deductions to pension plans. Anyway let's just go for simple comparisons if anyone can help out!

tonrob

No way of advising you based on what little information you have given.

Can you tell us where you are based now and where you will be bases, what line of work you are in (and at what level of expertise and/or seniority), whether you have a spouse/dependents. Also is your vacation allowance going to remain the same?

mmhendrie

yep - def. need more information - aside from trying to compare pension/401k/healthcare/tax pros and cons - a big big one is obviously location. If you're making an ok salary in Middlesbrough, and more to Manhattan NYC, even if you're going to be making a bit more money, you'll still be screwed.

jonathanbo

thanks for prompt responses, here's a bit more detail:

Geography - London based but IT consultancy role so could work different places in the UK but have been lucky with mainly London based assignments in 5 years working. Target is Chicago but company runs national practice so I would be expected to be mobile for project purposes, i.e. long distance commuting. I commute around 80 minutes to London now living in commuter land but would wish to be more central in Chicago when based there so city/central suburb areas so would expect to trade London commuting costs with higher rents to be in the Chicago city area

Role: Solutions Architect so more senior level

Vacation: Not sure whether it would remain the same or whether they'd want to reduce it to US employee levels - I'd suspect so otherwise anomalies would be created

No dependants, well at least I'll have my grown up kids left in the UK but I'll effectively be operating as a singleton in Chicago

Interestingly came across www.payscale.com and my UK salary was around the 80% figure.

Bob

Don't skimp, you're the one getting transferred for them. You get screwed here, you'll get screwed else where...and you'll still get screwed. Other wise you'll be lucky to get a weeks holiday and sick time on top.

As for what to look for, there are loads of threads to get a general idea, but things to consider -

Temp stuff - housing/car till you get your own place and car, it'll take a while and not be cheap

Tax - An accountant for first year a must, last year a bonus

Medical insurance, it's a must, try and get them to pay it all

Flights home to the UK, very least emergency flights, your mum or best mate get hit by a bus, getting a flight that night will cost you way in the thousands

Start up cash - Even if they pay to ship all your crap over, you're still going to be buying a new tele and pretty much every electrical item and very least a few house hold essentials till your stuff arrives, so kitchen utensils, a couple chairs etc. This adds up way quickly

Repatriation - They make you redundant, make sure they pay to get you and all your crap sent back to the UK, it'll make them think twice too which helps with the lack of job security

Greencard - In writing, they'll get on to it straight away, even if you don't care, you might well do after a few years and by then it might be to late, plus they've got you by the balls until you get the greencard

Edit: Can't believe there wasn't a wiki entry, so - http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Compan...on_Packages_US

Bit of a raw start, but I'm to lazy to search out the previous great posts on the subject to add all the great suggestions of the must haves and the things that are nice.

TimNiceBut

That depends very much as to where you want to end up in Chicago - some areas that are central have rents that are eye-watering even in comparison to Central London.

If they're not willing to transfer your UK allowance then I'd expect them to compensate you financially - in fact, that's one thing I'd probably be flexible on; either the equivalent of the UK salary adjusted in accordance with the various international relocation calculators (and taking into account the higher health care costs etc), or noticeably more money on top of the adjusted salary if they reduce you to US level (which might or might not include sick days as well, so be careful about that).

80% of what? The equivalent Chicago compensation or 80% of what the mean is in the UK?

TimNiceBut

Two very good points!

md95065

Having just played with payscale.com I think that he probably means that his current compensation package is at the 80th percentile for comparable positions in his area in the UK.

penguinsix

If the company that is sending you to the USA does not have a legal structure here in the US, you're going to have to deal with the issue of payroll taxes and social security (think PAYE-like expenses). A US company withholds part of your income to pay your US tax obligations and retirement / medicare payments. In addition, the US company pays the 'employer contribution' portion of this to the US government directly. For example, if you are paid $100,000 US a year, the actual cost to the company is $112,000 or so, with $12,000 of that going straight to the government. You don't actually get $100,000, as something like 1/3 is withheld to pay your taxes (similar to the UK).

Now, if you don't have the structure in place to have this done, and your company in the UK isn't going to go through the legal tax filing pain in the butt to do it from the UK, then you are going to be considered 'self-employed' and liable to pay not only your withholding requirements, but also the employer contribution's share as well. So in the hypothetical above you get $100,000 a year. You send 1/3 of it to pay your taxes (due every three months). In addition, you then have to cough up an additional $12,000 out of YOUR POCKET to cover the employer's contributions.

Needless to say, you will want to get the mechanics of your payroll sorted before you arrive, and if need be, make any adjustments to your payroll to deal with any additional potential expenses.

rpjs

Assuming Heathrow eventually opens, I will shortly be transferring from the London to the NYC office of my employer (I work in front-end web development for a large internet advertising co.).

When I was negotiating my transfer I used online tools like Glassdoor and Payscale.com to work out what the market rate for my skills and experience was and pitched for that. This was a lot higher - around 50% so - than my current salary in the UK. I argued that it was the fair rate for the job and that the cost of living in NYC is very high.

My boss (based in NYC) thought this was reasonable, and swung it with the HR folks in the US. UK HR was very hostile and argued that a 50% increase on my UK salary could not be justified. In the end, and after making veiled (but true) hints that due to health concerns with my mother-in-law we would have to move to the US sooner rather than later whether with my current employer or not, I struck a deal at 90% of what I wanted.

Given that I was making the request to transfer of the company, I think I did well. Vacation will be of the US variety, but my co. is pretty generous and my UK service will count towards accruing more for length of service - you should check if your co. has a similar accrual policy and if they do insist your UK service is counted.

My moral is that, especially in the US, if you don't ask you don't get. Modesty is not a virtue in the US corporate world, so do talk yourself up, remind them how good and useful you are to them and that they need to pay you what you're worth.

Good luck!

HumphreyC

I went through this six months ago.

On salary - find out what the equivalent pay is on payscale and go in a bit higher so they have to talk you down. If you sign up for the full membership on that you can get a load of other stats that should help you out. Holiday they may try and shake out of you but as someone else mentioned it's a bargaining chip in your salary negotiations. I hung on to mine - just - but they were feeling pretty generous. Really, playing Devil's advocate - if you negotiate an uplift based on US conditions you should get a U.S holiday allowance - but you can play the long service card.

The main problem I had is that it is hard for HR to get their heads around the fact that if you are moving to the States they will have to pay you more money. Often the view is that they can simply convert your existing salary over into dollars and that will do the job. Secondly benefits (e.g health insurance) are a big part of the renumeration package here.

Dan725

My completely unscientific way of trying to compare salaries has been to work off a value of 1 pound = 1.5 to 1.55 dollars or so. So local cost of living concerns aside (as you know you find them between cities in the UK too), I'd personally feel like I was earning roughly the same as in the UK if I came over on 1.5x salary or so.

I think I originally based it on the price of electronic goods or something....but after being here 8 years I still feel as though it holds true for a ballpark figure to aim for no matter what the actual exchange rate is at the time.

md95065

Add another factor of 1.5 tp that and I would probably agree with you.

In other words look for a US salary that is, in dollars, between 2x and 2.5x what your UK salary was in pounds.

jonathanbo

Such good input through all these replies so far so many thanks - I'll read in detail and digest. Like one particular response, I think a key point is it is me who is requesting the transfer rather than the company wanting me to so feel I have little bargaining power in many respects! E.g. relocation expenses will be out of the questions (I accept that) but do want to achieve parity. I'm very impressed at the activity in this forum and have already found such a lot of useful stuff.

Bob

Well you've got to ask or you won't get and they should help with relocation expenses, it'll soon get very expensive unless all you bring is a suitcase full of clothes and have no other possessions. Repatriation is a must too because they can fire you with no notice and severance in the US if they wanted too and like a few posters on this forum have found out, it's quite stressful and potentially expensive to find out after a couple of months that your job is no longer there and you've got to return in 10 days.