Malta ranked at 49th out of 85 cities for startups
• Singapore is the best city for those looking to work in startups, scoring high for healthcare, safety and offering a vibrant startup ecosystem full of professional opportunities. • Helsinki, Finland is in second place, scoring well for quality of life a
Furnished apartment platform, Nestpick, has produced a ranking comparing 85 cities worldwide to discover which offer the best quality of life for those employed in the startup industry.
With an interest in the relocation patterns of young professionals across the world, Nestpick combined their professional knowledge with this insightful research project, examining the cities via 13 factors synonymous with startup professionals.
The factors can be broken down into five important criteria; the city’s Startup Ecosystem, the salaries on offer in each location, social security and benefits the city offers, cost of living, and quality of life.
These criteria were further broken down into the following categories; for salaries, average salaries for entry level and experienced positions were taken into account for Project Management, Tech, and Marketing roles.
Social Security & Benefits took Income Tax, Health Care Quality and Vacation into account, whilst Quality of Life analysed Gender Equality and Safety in each location.
Finally, Cost of Living looked solely at the affordability of each city.
The results show that Singapore calculated as the best place for those looking to work in startups. The Asian hub scored well in terms of healthcare and safety and its offerings of a vibrant startup scene, boosting career opportunities.
“Certain cities may offer bigger paychecks, but after considering taxes and living expenses, the return may not be so high. Similarly, professionals should consider quality of life: will vacation days be adequate to visit home? Is healthcare as accessible as you would like it to be?” comments Ömer Kücükdere, Managing Director of Nestpick.
“We believe that time taken researching potential employers should not overshadow understanding the best cities in which to work. We hope that our study helps those looking to work in startups identify the cities which may best suit their needs.”
A full breakdown of scores, including average salaries in each location, can be found in the full results in: https://www.nestpick.com/bestcities-for-startup-employees/
As stated, Valletta Malta is ranked at 49th.
Its startup ecosystem is ranked as 2.88.
Its salary for project management at startup level is $23,644 and for experienced workers at $53,628.
Its salary for technical levels is $25,982 at entry level and $61,642.
As for marketing, its entry level salary is $20,371 and $47,102 for experienced persons.
Social Security and Benefits is classed at 3.36 as regards Income Tax, 4.93 as regards health care quality and 5.00 as regards vacation days.
Cost of Living is classed at 3.99. As regards quality of living, equality is classed at 2.53 and safety at 4.18.
Overall, the top ten highest scoring cities for startup employees are below. The sub categories have been combined into five broader categories for ease of understanding.
Further Insights
• San Francisco, USA has the highest salaries across all industries studied, for both entry level and experienced positions. However, despite high salaries, San Francisco ranks in the bottom 10 cities for affordability. • Of the top 10 highest earning
cities, 70% are in the US. • Cairo, Egypt has the lowest salaries across all industries for entry-level positions, while Tunis, Tunisia has the lowest salaries for experienced positions. • Dubai, UAE has the highest overall Social Security & Benefits score*, with the best score for income tax, but ranks last for equality. Lagos, Nigeria has the worst Social Security & Benefits score, with the lowest ranking Health Care Quality and Vacation Days. • 50% of the lowest ranking cities for Healthcare Quality are in Asia. • Vienna, Austria and Valletta, Malta are the joint top ranking for Vacation Days, while six French cities (Nice, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, Nantes and Paris) rank jointly first for Health Care Quality. • Munich, Germany has the highest overall score for Quality of Life whereas Sao Paulo, Brazil has the lowest—it also ranks last for safety. • Bangalore, India comes out top for affordability, compared to New York City, USA which ranks last. • Helsinki, Finland ranks top for equality while Singapore, Singapore ranks top for safety.
Methodology
Final scores were calculated by category according to the following proportions:
Startup Ecosystem (20%)
Some cities have innovation in their DNA.
The Startup Ecosystem score was calculated based on the 2thinknow 2016-2017 Innovation Cities Index, Startup Genome’s 2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, the number of startups in each city, and on the availability of capital and funding.
Salary (20%)
Compensation is a common motivator for employee relocation. Which cities offer the biggest paychecks?
Salary data was collected from local job boards, live job postings, and salary databases for each city to find average salaries for management, technology, and marketing positions. “Entry level” salaries provide an approximate value for a position requiring 0-3 years of previous experience, while “Experienced” salaries were based on jobs requiring 5-10 years of experience.
Of course, even for the same position in the same city, salaries fluctuate due to many factors including negotiation, education background, professional experience, and gender. Thus, these salaries may be higher or lower than your actual salary due to individual variation. All salary values reflect the yearly goss salary of an employee.
Social Security & Benefits (20%)
What percent of your paycheck do you see at the end of the month, and where does the rest of it go? Startup employees may not be keen to see a hefty portion of their salaries withheld for taxes, but in terms of your health and free time, the benefits could outweigh the cost.
Income Tax (~6.7%)
Income taxation is a complex and varied process, with many countries offering progressive taxes based on income, while others levy a flat rate across all income levels. Thus, the Income Tax score was calculated as the middle point between a typical tax rate for a Low-Mid Earner and a typical rate for a Mid-High Earner. In all cases, the selection of these rates was informed by local salary information, and when applicable, the tax rates include employee social security contributions.
Health Care Quality (~6.7%)
The Health Care Quality score was calculated based on the World Health Report conducted by the UN, the availability of hospitals per capita, and on the quality of medical facilities in each city.
Vacation Days (~6.7%)
The Vacation Days score was calculated according to each city’s minimum number of annual vacation days, including federal holidays.
Affordability (20%)
A high salary is certainly a plus, but it’s all relative to the cost of living in your city.
The Affordability score was calculated by comparing local prices of groceries, street food, restaurants, clothing, public transportation, and monthly rent on a one bedroom apartment in the city center. All data was collected from local price reports, web listings, and online shops.
The total Affordability score, which contributes 20% to the final score, was calculated with the following category weightings: 60% Rent, 8% Grocery, 8% Street Food, 8% Restaurant, 8% Public Transport, and 8% Clothing.
For more information about the breakdown of the score by category in your city, contact pablo@abcd.agency.
Quality of Life (20%)
No matter the salary or career, every employee deserves to feel comfortable and safe in the city they call home.
Safety (12.5%)
Each city’s Safety score reflects the reported perception of safety by residents and public data provided by police departments of each city regarding crime rates.
Gender Equality (7.5%)
The Gender Equality score was calculated using the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum. At Nestpick, we are committed to offering equal pay to all employees. Professional women around the world should know which cities offer fair compensation, and which cities still lag behind.
School Tuition (0%) - Depending on language, education policies, and personal preference, many expatriate employees choose to send their children to international school, while many others enroll their children in public schools for the full, immersive experience. For those cities in which international schooling for children of foreign workers is most common, we researched average yearly tuition fees for a primary school aged child at an international school. Because schooling is ultimately a personal choice and not applicable to all startup employees, tuition data did not affect the rankings. Rather, the figures reported should serve as additional information for those considering relocation.
All prices accurate on 3 July 2017 with up-to-date exchange rates from Bloomberg Markets.