yea I am curious ... what do the numbers (salary, take home, taxes, expenses etc.) look like, for say US vs. Canadian Residents ... are you actually better off working in the US?
That’s not to mention job security. With some exceptions, in many low CoL areas you’re looking at a sizable gap between jobs simply because the market isn’t as big, and worse, you might end up having to settle for a less than great option or find yourself locked in somewhere for far longer than you’d prefer. Out here, if you’re decent at all this is not an issue... many of us here can easily walk from one job straight into the next, should that be necessary.
I might move somewhere more cheap and quiet eventually, but it’ll be once I’ve saved up enough that I’m not beholden to any particular company and I’ve found something that it wouldn’t bother me to be doing for many years. For now, the demand and pace of the SF Bay Area is just too much to give up.
You’ll save a higher percent and absolute amount of money working in the bay.
Of course, the issue is that not everyone earns $300K+ per year. Unless you make it into a senior role at a tech company by the time you want to have kids, living a ‘normal’ life in the Bay will be hard. Even doctors and dentists will struggle. I completely understand why people would want to leave. I expect they will. The Bay Area is great, but America is an amazing, beautiful place, and fine food / coffee / culture has spread far beyond the streets of SF these days.
Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Miami, etc. You really cannot got wrong with any of these cities.
The best markets for Canadian developers are Toronto and Vancouver, which are also notorious for their insane costs of living. Developer salaries in Toronto mostly cap out around ~150k CAD, with a lucky few able to make it into the low 200s. These are effectively starting salaries in the Bay Area.
In Canada, they get the benefit of "free healthcare / transit / education" + amazing house that can be paid almost cash thanks to the years in US banking up + back to their friends and family + "senior" level jobs thanks to their expertise learned at the top 5 tech company.