Sorry, perhaps I should have said, people in Austria are less over educated (i.e. at the same education level Austrians earn more than Poles).

I dont know where op gets their stats but pay in austria is by no means competitive. I know of a romanian dude who interviewed for a company there. Pompous session, ties, suit and the stench of a rigid hierarchy. Once they made their offer he laughed and told them he’d earn twice as much for the same (tech) job in romania. Perhaps an isolated case but DACH countries have an inflated sense of superiority not matching reality, at least in software tech. Interestingly i see many of them crapping on east europeans on this forum. Perhaps due to a sense of insecurity, but would be interesting if someone pulled some stats on how often they pull the east european “poverty” or “corruption” card out of their behind.