Local work contract conditions - need your advice

One other quick precision, another aspect that adds to the confusion is also the recession that is announced in the US for 2008...

Do you live in the US ?
Or will you need a visa ?
Do you have children ?

45000$ per year is about what earn a school teacher or a call center employee.
The other conditions are about the same as the very basic proposed to any employees.

I'll need a Visa, and my (potential) employer will go through the admin process for me... I don't have any children.

I just found the salary proposed so low, which is why I needed comments. I suspect the HR lady I talked to must have made a very low proposal, expecting me to propose a salary much higher than what she proposed and eventually agree on an in between amount

I found this web page giving average salaries per categories of work: http://www.nyjobsource.com/salary/business.html

Do you think that mirrors the 2008 situation?

Masdu wrote:

...
Do you think that mirrors the 2008 situation?

Yes kind of, check also:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Sta … ork/Salary

I think yes it is low, depends where you come what you do... and yes living in NY with a 45K salary is not easy (some nanny earn more here) but again it depends of the type of job, not everybody do a 6 figures job.

Beside the salary (which I agree is low to live in Mannhattan, but I'm not aware of the standards for that kind of job... and it doesn't sound insane either!), you may check out the kind of visa your employer is applying for.
Working visa usually are attached to the job you get, which means that you may not be allowed to look for another job in the US with your visa in case you decide to quit the job after a few months or if you get fired. If that's the case, I would ask for a minimum duration or an indemnity to be stated in the contract (knowing that it's very fast and easy to lay off an employee here)... unless your employer agrees to pay for your way back !

But I would not worry too much about "the big recession" announced for 2008. It will happen for sure, but the past years have been very good, the basics of the american economy still are good, and more importantly, you don't have a mortgage and are not working in the real estate or at some kind of hedge funds, are you?

Good luck!

All right, thanks all for your comments...

Eventually, the conditions were raised to $53000 (and a $5000 indemnity for the first year).
My Visa will be an E2 Treaty investor/Treaty Trader. I guess that is attached to the job and not transferable according to what I read on a website, can anybody please confirm?

And also, given this salary, what will be roughly speaking my 'take away home' pay after all charges (tax...) have been deducted?
Or do you know any goo dnet salary calculator for the state of New York

Yes, all working visa are attached ...to the work You lose the job, you lose the visa.
Regarding the salary, employers usually advertize a gross salary - before tax - and you should apply an average of -20% for taxes. You may check wich your employer if that's the case. It is your choice to fix the rate. Taxes are taken off the payroll, based on the rate you've chosen. Once a year, the IRS calls for an adjustement based on your actual income (if you paid too much taxes on your payroll, they'll send you the money back).
This applies to the Federal tax only.

You'll also have to pay a State tax (New York) and a Borough tax (Manhattan, if you decide to live there). It is your responsability to make those declarations and pay. The local (borough) tax may vary a lot depending on the location. I assume that Manhattan must be expensive.

Last, if you own your house, you'll have to pay the house owner tax, based on the real estate value.

Bottom line, it's a lot of paper work but taxes are much lower in the US than in most european countries (I assume that you're currently living in Europe?).

My recommendation is to have a CPA make the job for you. It is very affordable ($100 to $200 per year depending on your revenue), they know all the tricks, and usually help you save much more money than the cost of their service.

Good luck