r/czech • u/Calm_Smile104 • Apr 13 '26
LIVING Living cost in Liberec as an Embedded Engineer
Hello,
I have been offered a position at Liberec in a company working on engineering products and they are offering me 50k czk/month. I am new to Czech system and I need to move from Germany to CZech for this job. Is this average pay in Liberec region? What is the average living cost? Any inputs are greatly appreciated.
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u/Anxious-Yard-5948 Apr 13 '26
If it is brutto then it sounds a bit low. If it is netto then its pretty fine for Liberec.
Living cost in CZ is almost the same like in Germany (maybe 10% less).
If you are desperate, try to negotiate at least 60k brutto so that you can cover comfortably your costs and then still search for sth else once you have it (at least 70k). You can also move back to Germany once you have experience. As 60k is sth like min wage in Germany, you will surely find there sth better in a couple of years.
Life is pretty good in Liberec though, nth to worry about. You will probably like it. But the only thing significantly cheaper are prices of good food at restaurants.
They will not find anyone for 50k so nth bad sbout negotiating tbh.
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u/Anxious-Yard-5948 Apr 13 '26
Also you could become a freelancer in a couple of years which is the sweet spot in CZ, CZ has probably lowest taxes for freelancers in the world so a lot of IT people or people in the top management are freelancers, then you can earn easily more in netto than employees in Germany
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u/Qwe5Cz Praha Apr 13 '26
But you need to account for no paid holidays, sick leave and other benefits that in turn mean you need to ask for way way more than an employee.
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u/narullow Apr 13 '26
It sounds about average if you talk gross wage. Median gross wage would be less than 40k.
Now is it fair for your position? I have no idea how well embedded engineers are paid here but I would not be surprised with this number.
So to answer your question with 50k gross (40k net) you will definitely have better standard than the typical person in the region. Whether that standard matches your expectations is different question entirely.
As for living costs. I would say sub 30k comfortably and ability to spend/save 10k extra.
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u/Anxious-Yard-5948 Apr 13 '26
Typical person in the region got the housing from (grand)parents so they are living much better on 40k brutto than OP (who even needs to relocate because of this job) would live on 50k brutto.
50k is very low for an engineer who needs to relocate from WE.
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u/narullow Apr 13 '26
They really would not, especially not around Liberec. Liberec has a lot of people that came in from elsewhere. Median working person did not really inherit their housing. Maybe something in some village that was used as a collateral for mortgage or something.
Also even then such person would not have 30k expenses that I mentioned so I accounted for it.
As for it being low. Salaries are low even for engineers everywhere outside of Prague, especially without experience. So idk, plus a lot of people commutes to Prague which inflates the average salary but comes with other non financial costs, such as commiting costs and even more importantly time.
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u/Gullible-Donut-5247 Czech Apr 13 '26
rent for something nice is gonna be like 20k, is this brutto or netto? Liberec is a very nice place to live, but not many people are gonna speak english
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u/Calm_Smile104 Apr 13 '26
Yes, this is gross salary. I have 4yrs of experience, but the only catch is I have experience in automotive sector and the offer is in IoT and Firmware development.
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u/Quick_Brush_801 Apr 13 '26
you can live with 50k gross in liberec easily. But for a software position, the salary could be higher.
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u/GasPuzzled9272 Apr 13 '26
That offer is kinda low. You might even be below minimal wage of Germany, and you can live in Zittau ( DE, about 20 minutes by car from Liberec) for about 50-70% of living cost.
Basically you might have better financial situation by moving to Zittau and work as a cashier in Lidl.
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u/Odd_Communication417 Apr 13 '26
if you are alone, you can rent something medium about 15-20k with electricity/water. Check Sreality.cz for renting prices. Liberec is nice place to live. Lunch is from 150-250 czk. 50k (netto) is more than average salary. You can also check numbeo.com for other price levels