80k plus all of society's trappings of France. Dude, it's not even a comparison. Worker's rights, healthcare, public transit, safety, security...

Listed salaries are almost always what the employee pays, not what it costs the company. In the US, this includes the payroll tax, and cost of "benefits," like healthcare and unemployment insurance, and is referred to as the burdened rate. This is separate from the income tax the employee has to pay to the government, mind you.

The burdened rate for most employees at the companies I've worked for in the US is like 20-50% higher than the salary paid. Not sure exactly how it works in France, but I do know there's a pretty complex payroll tax companies have to pay. I think it's something like 40% at the salary you quoted.

And a 80k$ salary in France amounts to around 125k$ cost for the employer.
So 170k$ isn't that much - I actually know French developers and network engineers that make similar money.
The French ITsec architect I interviewed last year would have cost me (converted) around 150k$.

So 170k$ is absolutely not out of the normal range here.

Talking about France: The French government could start to properly support matrix.org as they use it for tChap. The same goes for Germany with the "Behördenmessenger"

You can't just look at the exchange rate. You have to look at cost and standard of living.

Someone in the US making 100k is not doing as well as someone in France making 70k€

So 170k$ isn’t that much

If that's the amount the company pays, then yea. If this is the amount the employee receives, then that's a lot. Like really.

Then at this point I start to wonder: why can't they take people in countries where the cost of living is cheaper? When you're funded by donations, this seems more logical

I feel like companies based in the USA and accepting donations make it so that donations from countries outside USA are a lot less meaningfull because we get less money, and they need to spend more.

Indeed, but it's understandably a super high amount compared to what we get. If you're in good shape, you get way more money. If not, you probably get (a lot) less.

Good shape? I think something got lost in translation.

I meant good health, no (mental) illness, no medical treatment, already have somewhere to live...

Why would it display the priced paid by the company like this, when it doesn't for other countries like France though? Seems weird

Unless USA companies don't pay taxes when paying a salary? But I don't really believe that

There's something that kinda helps with the migration: https://ems.element.io/tools/matrix-migration