That individual wasn’t very good with numbers or forgot about the IRS. Maybe he/she was just comparing basic salary. Including all allowances a captain at EK makes about 19k/month or 230k/year after tax. If they took the villa option you would have to reduce that by about 40k but would then have free housing. I’m guessing you would need to make 300k in the states to end up with 230k after taxes. I don’t work for delta but I would be imprsssed if you can make that on year 2 salary.