with the exchange rate maybe. I have talented friends in Toronto who tell me it pretty much caps at $100k CAD. Whereas at a comparable talent and experience level, the range in the Bay Area is $175-300k USD = $240-400k CAD. And this excluding the outliers who got lucky and joined pre-IPO.
The qualifier there is "in the Bay Area". I get the impression you could easily replace "Canada/Toronto/Vancouver" with "Midwest" and be mostly accurate.
Also, while this:
$175-300k USD = $240-400k CAD
is accurate, it fluctuates. Back in 2008 CAD and USD were at par with CAD actually exceeding USD for periods. Also, unless you're living in Canada and getting paid in USD (or hoarding cash to return to living in Canada) the exchange rate shouldn't really mean much in terms of your career choices. It makes more sense to measure those salaries against local cost of living / quality of living / etc.
What do you mean by this? After taxes, rent, food and other living costs, you're keeping almost 50% of your compensation to spend on whatever you want. How does purchasing power not matter? How much does a car cost in Canada? An iPhone? How much does a flight to Japan cost or a dinner in Tokyo? Of course the exchange rate is relevant even when you're not "hoarding" cash and have no intentions to return to Canada.
What you really want to be doing is comparing local purchasing power to local purchasing power, unless you're looking into cross-currency transactions. Sure local purchasing power can be affected by exchange rate (e.g. things that depend on imports), but that's indirect and is a bit more complicated than doing a direct currency conversion on your yearly (pre-tax) salary.
Comments
with the exchange rate maybe. I have talented friends in Toronto who tell me it pretty much caps at $100k CAD. Whereas at a comparable talent and experience level, the range in the Bay Area is $175-300k USD = $240-400k CAD. And this excluding the outliers who got lucky and joined pre-IPO.
The qualifier there is "in the Bay Area". I get the impression you could easily replace "Canada/Toronto/Vancouver" with "Midwest" and be mostly accurate.
Also, while this:
is accurate, it fluctuates. Back in 2008 CAD and USD were at par with CAD actually exceeding USD for periods. Also, unless you're living in Canada and getting paid in USD (or hoarding cash to return to living in Canada) the exchange rate shouldn't really mean much in terms of your career choices. It makes more sense to measure those salaries against local cost of living / quality of living / etc.
What do you mean by this? After taxes, rent, food and other living costs, you're keeping almost 50% of your compensation to spend on whatever you want. How does purchasing power not matter? How much does a car cost in Canada? An iPhone? How much does a flight to Japan cost or a dinner in Tokyo? Of course the exchange rate is relevant even when you're not "hoarding" cash and have no intentions to return to Canada.
What you really want to be doing is comparing local purchasing power to local purchasing power, unless you're looking into cross-currency transactions. Sure local purchasing power can be affected by exchange rate (e.g. things that depend on imports), but that's indirect and is a bit more complicated than doing a direct currency conversion on your yearly (pre-tax) salary.