I don’t think cost of living really makes much of a difference, sure the US is more expensive but if you are making double or triple the pay I don’t think it even factors. Surely if you work for a major carrier you get healthcare provided aswell? My friends who joined Atlas, they show me their rosters and it sure is a different world.
Americans are much more unionised, the country is far richer and the yanks seem much more open in discussing their pay. Just go the their version of pprune and you have pages and pages of people posting their yearly numbers, we are far more cagey. Europe has so many countries competing it’s just a race to the bottom.