Salary when moving from US to Canada on ICT

[fr72]

I currently work in California and (hopefully) moving to Toronto later. My employer offered a +3% in the US Salary amount as the Canada salary. That in effect would be a 22% reduction when we do the USD to CAD conversion. I'm not complaining, I believe this is still a good offer because salary here generally would have a premium for the location compared to other states. I know one of my friends who moved from Boston to Toronto a few years back on ICT (different company) also got a similar salary offer with a 3 to 4% increase to his US salary. So just wondering if there is any norm for this.

To make this clear - Let's say my current salary is USD $100k. Adding 3% would become my Canada salary - CAD $103k.

CAD $103k = USD ~$78k, which is -22% of my current US salary and yes, I understand this totally depends on the exchange rate.

I saw many posts regarding ICT from the US to Canada. So, I would like to get a general idea and to understand if the employers follow any common standard while converting the US salary to Canada. I know that the answer is most probably employer-specific and location in the US versus Canada. Still, it would be great if anyone could provide the details from their experience.

When I negotiated salary with Canadian employer (I changed jobs), I told them my US salary in CAD. Naturally, they balked. But in order to come to a middle ground, they offered me a contract position which would give me effectively the same pay as I got in US.

Next, I looked for full time jobs locally in Toronto and used this contract job salary as starting point. I found a US based company (startup) which was hiring. They were not familiar with Toronto market and were happy to match my contract salary, but with full time benefits.

Fast forward 3 years, I am making 50% more than my US salary. I.e if i was making 100k USD in US, I now make 150k USD. This goes a long way in Toronto and if I moved to any American major city (except Seattle and Austin), I would be taking an effective pay cut.

Not saying Canada is better than US (though it seems perfectly acceptable to make blanket statements the other way), but it can work out. I am also not counting other big monetary gains. For example, where I was in US, property taxes were 4x of Toronto and I was on a work visa, so never bought a house. My condo in Toronto has gone up 30% in value since I bought it.

 

[poppedpluto]

When I negotiated salary with Canadian employer (I changed jobs), I told them my US salary in CAD. Naturally, they balked. But in order to come to a middle ground, they offered me a contract position which would give me effectively the same pay as I got in US.

Next, I looked for full time jobs locally in Toronto and used this contract job salary as starting point. I found a US based company (startup) which was hiring. They were not familiar with Toronto market and were happy to match my contract salary, but with full time benefits.

Fast forward 3 years, I am making 50% more than my US salary. I.e if i was making 100k USD in US, I now make 150k USD. This goes a long way in Toronto and if I moved to any American major city (except Seattle and Austin), I would be taking an effective pay cut.

Not saying Canada is better than US (though it seems perfectly acceptable to make blanket statements the other way), but it can work out. I am also not counting other big monetary gains. For example, where I was in US, property taxes were 4x of Toronto and I was on a work visa, so never bought a house. My condo in Toronto has gone up 30% in value since I bought it.

Thanks! These are some good examples of your personal experience and thanks for sharing them!

From a quick comparison it looks like certain basic grocery items are pretty expensive in Toronto like milk, eggs etc compared to the US but rent is cheaper in Toronto. I’ve heard the quality of life is better in Canada but obviously you earn a lot more in the US in terms of $$. Either way I guess both are good depending on what you want in life - money or a good quality of life.