Gross, net, and the gap between them

An offer quotes gross pay — the whole figure, before anything is taken out. What lands in your account is net pay, and in most countries the gap between the two runs somewhere between a fifth and a third of the total. Nobody hides this; it is simply not the number anyone says out loud.

The practical consequence is that a graduate who plans a life around the gross figure is planning around money that was never theirs. Before you sign anything, ask for an illustrative payslip, or find the tax authority's own take-home calculator for that country and put the offer through it.