Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 302 posts

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#161

Post by gricardo99 »

grotsnot wrote: post #139
gricardo99 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstand the comment about exchange rate. In Canada, the price difference of goods with the U.S. is beyond just the exchange rate. Thus, you can convert a salary between USD and CAD, but that doesn't account for higher prices of goods in Canada (beyond exchange rate differences). This is why many Canadians shop in the U.S. (if feasible), or travel to the U.S. to make big purchases (such as cars). Whe…

IANAE but it sounds like when imports get cheaper, importers pocket as much of the the difference for as long as they can get away with it. When imports get more expensive, they pass on as much as they can to consumers as quickly as they can get away with it. Not terribly surprising for profit-driven behavior.

That sounds about right. Also, there's some cost to readjusting prices, so that probably introduces some price change hysteresis.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#162

Post by guiomie »

EternalData wrote: post #19

For those people who are talking about salaries in Canada versus salaries in the United States -- I don't have a dog to pick in the fight, but I think cost of living is a really important consideration when you're looking to evaluate compensation differences. Some people have put together prices and it came out that Toronto is about 31% cheaper to live in than SF. ( https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/compariso…

Salary are usually 1.5 to 3 time higher. You can save much more money.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#164

Post by Tiktaalik »

didibus wrote: post #135
eigenvector wrote: post #5

"For years, Canada's tech industry has watched in frustration as Microsoft and Google hired the country's top computer science grads for high-paying jobs in Seattle and Silicon Valley. Now Canada believes it has found a new way to lure American and international tech workers." Is it... paying more so people don't have to choose between their country and financial security? Let's see. "Canadian tech companies are eage…

I'd love it so much if Canada had comparable salaries. I'd move back for sure, at least if it came 10% within Seattle and SV. But, I'm not sure it's possible for companies to do so. I mean, first of all, in the US, outside of a few cities like NY, SV, Seattle, Bellevue, you start to see lower pay which gets closer to Canadian pay. Appart from that, Canada just doesn't have the same market. That's the biggest differen…

> In a way, Canada pays decently. You'll be very comfortable as an engineer in Canada, even with a large family. But compared to certain US cities, it's abysmal.

Hmmm depends on where you live. In some places a large family would be quite unaffordable. The average cost of a detached house in February in Metro Vancouver was $1.76 million. Vancouver has become so unaffordable that even those with great (for Canada) six figure salaries would find it very hard to cobble together enough money to buy property.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#165

Post by kspaans »

guiomie wrote: post #162
EternalData wrote: post #19

For those people who are talking about salaries in Canada versus salaries in the United States -- I don't have a dog to pick in the fight, but I think cost of living is a really important consideration when you're looking to evaluate compensation differences. Some people have put together prices and it came out that Toronto is about 31% cheaper to live in than SF. ( https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/compariso…

Salary are usually 1.5 to 3 time higher. You can save much more money.

Until you have to put kids through school or have a big medial emergency that isn't covered by your insurance.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#166

Post by goodcanadian »

acchow wrote: post #153
goodcanadian wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not the person you replied to, but US$3000 is about CA$4000 or CA$48000 per year. For a junior software development position, that does seem to be in the ballpark of what gets offered in Canada.

This sounds too low. Everything has gone up in the past couple years - salaries, cost of housing, cost of groceries, restaurant bills.

I've been looking over the past few months. CA$50000 for a "software engineer" is a very commonly advertised number. Those appear to be the junior positions to be sure; I have also seen higher numbers (mid level seems to be around CA$70000 with some senior positions around CA$90000), but I cannot write plausible applications for most of those as I am not really a "software engineer" even though I have often been called on to write code. However, adjusted for inflation, CA$50000 is still well below what I started at straight out of university ~15 years ago.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#167

Post by alacombe »

rb808 wrote: post #101

I dont understand the hate on Canadian salaries. Its a safer, more liberal country that looks after its poorest. If you want cut throat lifestyle that pays the most - with the guy who cooked you dinner keeping one eye out for an ICE van, your ex-slaves in prison and some homeless guy going through your dumpster - you'll love the US. If you want to live a fairer society (Canada, France, Germany, Australia etc) don't c…

> I dont understand the hate on Canadian salaries. Its a safer, more liberal country that looks after its poorest.

No, it doesn't. "It" prefers to import "refugees" en-masse and giving them free shit, rather than fix poverty for Canadians.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#168

Post by 52-6F-62 »

avaer wrote: post #60

The reason engineer salaries in Canada are low, especially for startups, isn't that companies are cheap. It's that there is no funding or support network for growing companies -- nothing compared to the valley. In my experience seed funding in Canada doesn't mean "this idea looks like it's on a promising growth trajectory, here's 100K for a bit of equity to see what we can make of it". Instead it means "show us $500K…

And don't forget about the general attitude towards tech and tech workers here.

Even digital media companies seem to see technology as something that happens outside them, and should just work. They have keep a handful of developers on hand because they have to, not because they want to. And then they're just the "computer guys".

There's a significant bit of nerd stigma still. It's a bit outdated, that way.

You're pretty spot-on with the support network, though. The federal government does offer programs at an increasing rate these days, but they're too few and can't do all the lifting.

What surprises me yet is how we seem to have no shortage of digital design agencies in Toronto, but anything more technical seems to need to have enterprise money flowing in, or academic support. I'm generalizing, because there are edge cases, but it's certainly seems to be the mode.

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#169

Post by [deleted] »

sage76 wrote: post #71

Poignant for me, I haven't been able to decide on where to move. US is still the big whale as far as tech opportunities go, but for Indians going there now, permanent residency is not possible within their lifetimes, with an 80+ year waiting time on the green card processing. Canada is far easier to permanently settle in, but the opportunities are far fewer, and salaries are lower too. I don't know what the answer is…

[deleted]

Re: Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety

#170

Post by mahyarm »

ska wrote: post #140
shados wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After living expenses, health insurance, taxes, etc, just moving south my net income tripled. 5 years later, I'm pushing something like 8x what disposable income would have been by now if I compare with my old colleagues. And that's even after I take out the extra expenses of my mortgage being 11x what my rent used to be (by choice, it was "only" 4x higher originally, since I lived in a rent controlled area for almos…

Path dependence and all that, so I'm sure this is how things worked out for you. People should be aware though, your example isn't even close to usual. Work the numbers for a simple case - for round numbers take 100k/yr and 1000/month disposable. To do 8x that you are adding basically another 100k, post tax - so add another 35 k. Do at this rate you have a salary multiple of 2.35. This just doesn't happen in general,…

For Canadians it's the status quo.

I was looking for my first job out of college, offers in Canada were 1/2 what they were in Seattle. Cost of living was lower than Vancouver. A TN visa was a low barrier. This story repeats over and over again.

Post reply on HN