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Comment by hacknat | Hacker News Reader

This is changing. I work with Canadian colleagues at a remote-friendly company, and they make the same salary as the folks in NYC and SV, taking conversion into account (most make >200k CD). I also know that Shopify pays very well. Canadian tech is catching up in compensation terms, and the dominoes are going to start following as demand picks up.

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Would you care to share which companies you know that pay equal salaries? I'm close to 200k CAD in total comp working in Vancouver but that's still around 40% less of what colleagues in the States are making.

I hear this a lot - most of the time its just people happy making >100k not realizing the Canadian dollar has dropped a lot, and just how ridiculous US salaries have become in the last 10years.

My question for you though is, is it much less? Americans have to save way more money for retirement than Canadians. I bet your fully loaded costs are close.

I believe the last time we ran the numbers it wasn't that drastic. The mandatory retirement saving in Canada (Canada Pension Plan) is quite bad, can't really be maxed out beyond a very low benefit, and is almost criminal for your beneficiaries if you die before retirement. It is certainly than nothing, but definitely not better than taking the same money and placing it in a tax sheltered index fund.

Which industry and how many years of experience if I may ask?

I work with deep learning, and with ~2 years of experience >125k CAD base is a rare find.

What does "taking conversion into account" mean? Either they earn the same or they don't.

I'm pretty sure that's referring to currency conversion. 200K CAD is around 150K USD.

So they earn the same then.

New graduates make more than that with 0 yoe in silicon valley.

>Canadian tech is catching up in compensation terms, and the dominoes are going to start following as demand picks up

Slowly changing. The US companies are going to pick up all the talent here.

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