Hacker News Reader

Comment by nivertech | Hacker News Reader

I think they talking about after tax numbers

If this were WA it'd be a substantial difference (somewhat). CA and NY though (particularly NYC) have a total tax rate in the same ballpark as Canada.

And the Canadians get health care for that money.

That said I've done the cost of living numbers between here (NYC) vs. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, and even with the insane rent here I'm still coming out ahead - way ahead. The salary difference is truly mind-boggling.

More than the salary difference, the kind of work you're doing as a $200K engineer in SV/SF/NYC is very different than the kind of work you're doing as a $70K engineer in Toronto. There is a conspicuous lack of this level of work in Canada overall.

Taxes in Canada are not particularly higher than in the U.S.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0411/do-canadians...

You need to include sales tax, which ranges from 5% in Alberta to 15% in Quebec. Also, taxes on alcohol and gasoline are much higher than the US.

That being said, with the recent tax increases in the US and the lower of provincial income taxes in many Canadian provinces (I'm looking at you BC), the difference isn't as great as one would think.

You're paying sales taxes in pretty much all of the US, though, though not as much(ranges from ~3% to 10%).

Not at all. Starting salary in Canada is $45-70k and I know at least four people who made north of $150k in total comp their first year out of school in SV. The interns in SV make more than some senior engineers in Canada.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com