An indication that you actually probably can't make much money working in Brazil or China

Oh Sarah... You clearly need to travel a bit more. Sao Paulo is a far more expensive city than London those days. Google and you might find where CS' best paid banker globally is based. People there those days get paid MORE than NY or London (no ppp needed), pay less taxes and... "live happily in the West later"?? -- that can't be serious, Brazil is far east now? You should consider getting on a plane and checking for yourself what is out there. Same is valid for Asia.

ppp

Hello, the real life in Sao Paulo now:
- All companies are growing and have expansion plans after Brazil had +7.5% growth in 2010. All companies I have visited over the last 6 months told me they were growing and had multi-year expansion plans. Warren Buffet announced he wants to buy firms here to capitalize on growth opportunities.
- The #1 official concern for executives is lack of skilled professionals who can also speak Portuguese to implement their strategic business plans.
- The currency is strong making things expensive compared to the US and maybe to the UK. A Honda Civic will cost you around US Dollars 50K. A good meal for two US Dollars costs 200. A business suit costs US Dollar 600-1,000.
- Annual packages that range from US Dollars 300K to 1 million are VERY common for corporate finance, research, portfolio management, wealth management, sales, trading, private equity, capital markets. Where? At Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPM, Barclays, CS, Cibank, BNP, HSBC and also at the local player like Itau, Bradesco and at powerhouse BTG.
- Warm weather, nice beaches, beautiful women, heavy traffic, social imbalances.

@Dave@Peter@Viraj@Others - Needless to say it's cheaper to live in both Sao Paulo and Shanghai. Equally, the FT claimed senior people in Brazil are being paid well.

However - correct or not - Robert Walters' salary survey suggests that people in these cities aren't paid particularly well.

The figures have been converted into sterling as this is a UK website and people reading this article will probably be based here. On a PPP basis, you might be quite happy while you're in Brazil/China, but they imply that you're not going to make enough to get out again and live happily in the West later.

This is a quick article, intended partly as a debating point. Continue talking amongst yourselves...

So you took recruitment agents salary surveys (usually some market person asking a bunch of ex Foxton agents what they reckon), and then dont even think through using 'purchasing power parity' or cost of living in the location before drawing the conclusion that "you get paid less" - very stilted

Perhaps a career at the Daily Mail beckons Sarah?