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As one of the talent in the united States, which ironically I went to school at ubc, there is very little chance I'd move back. I heard a senior dev maxes out a

As one of the talent in the united States, which ironically I went to school at ubc, there is very little chance I'd move back. I heard a senior dev maxes out at $85,000 a year. And with housing prices equal to the bay area, that's just a bad deal. But aside from money there is the respect factor. I'm not convinced that tech is respected in Vancouver. So take a triple downgrade and work for business folks who hate you?

van_developer 11y ago
At my level CAD $120k/yr is average salary I've been offered locally, with no options, though after taxes that's $87k/yr and my rent is $24k/yr for a one bed condo so I would have $63k to spend per year. Instead I make remotely USD $160k, which is $210k CAD, and it goes to a consulting corporation that I write off everything I can including rent so pay much less taxes to my incredibly corrupt provincial government. I also have standard options everybody else in SV gets. Edit: I work for a startup that advertised here in the monthly who's hiring threads.
- msie 11y ago
  May I ask what type of job are you doing? Rails? Javascript? Managing vs programming? TIA
  - van_developer 11y ago
    Basic security tests. I was hired as a full stack dev then moved to "Sr Security Lead" after writing a lot of tests that exposed bugs and squashed them before they became problems. I don't really consider myself any kind of infosec person but nobody else was doing it so I got the position. Edit: one previous job here locally I did the same tests and exposed bugs weekly on my own time, fixed countless authentication bypasses, and plugged a memory leak that had been slowing down the app for years before I was hired and when I asked for a raise or meaningful options the department manager gave me an unbelievable speech about how they don't like workers with only financial goals in mind, said I had no passion for what they were building if money was my motivation and suggested I quit. This was one of the top Vancouver tech industry outfits constantly shilled in the media. My salary at the time was $70k (2013).
    - aprdm 11y ago
      Can you write about this kind of tests in a blog post or something like that ? Would be very helpful for the community in general, you seem to have a great knowledge to share!
- mahyarm 11y ago
  What is the tax rate? CA tax rate is about comparable to BC tax rate. Since your remote, what stops you from moving to Mexico lets say, living beside the beach and paying a lot less in taxes and living expenses? Family? Children?
  - van_developer 11y ago
    Friends, family and girlfriend live here but yes I could live anywhere though Vancouver is a good city if you can afford it. My tax rates are prov 40.7% and 27.3% federally though it's a marginal and progressive rate depending on income level and ridiculously complicated. I still pay employment insurance and 4.95% CPP too, plus 12% sales tax on almost anything I buy, except for wine which is almost 100% taxed through government owned liquor store markup so your $10 California wine is $26 after tax and exchange plus GST 7%.
- torondev 11y ago
  Im in similar situation, but work out of Toronto. Companies here wouldn't pay enough for me to work full time, given the US options. What are you able to tax deduct besides % rent used solely for business? Lease vehicle?
- ryanobjc 11y ago
  Sounds like you have a good deal. But the top end of things is very low in Canada. Top tier talent is just not for Canada.
garyrichardson 11y ago
I can confirm senior devs do not max out at $85K CDN. The money is not as good and made worse by down swings in the Canadian dollar, but it's not that bad.
- msie 11y ago
  When I was looking for a job in Vancouver the average salary for an intermediate developer was around 70-75k Canadian. Senior devs can go from 85-100k and even higher for American companies with teams in Vancouver. Salesforce has 100k jobs. But a startup in Vancouver doesn't have the cash to pay top salaries unlike a startup in Silicon Valley.
  - ryanobjc 11y ago
    OK, but i want to get paid $600,000 a year as an engineer. Now what?
- dgudkov 11y ago
  What's your definition of 'senior'? My friend in Toronto gets $120K CDN being an average dev (~5yrs of experience, no reports).

van_developer 11y ago

At my level CAD $120k/yr is average salary I've been offered locally, with no options, though after taxes that's $87k/yr and my rent is $24k/yr for a one bed condo so I would have $63k to spend per year. Instead I make remotely USD $160k, which is $210k CAD, and it goes to a consulting corporation that I write off everything I can including rent so pay much less taxes to my incredibly corrupt provincial government. I also have standard options everybody else in SV gets. Edit: I work for a startup that advertised here in the monthly who's hiring threads.

msie 11y ago
May I ask what type of job are you doing? Rails? Javascript? Managing vs programming? TIA
- van_developer 11y ago
  Basic security tests. I was hired as a full stack dev then moved to "Sr Security Lead" after writing a lot of tests that exposed bugs and squashed them before they became problems. I don't really consider myself any kind of infosec person but nobody else was doing it so I got the position. Edit: one previous job here locally I did the same tests and exposed bugs weekly on my own time, fixed countless authentication bypasses, and plugged a memory leak that had been slowing down the app for years before I was hired and when I asked for a raise or meaningful options the department manager gave me an unbelievable speech about how they don't like workers with only financial goals in mind, said I had no passion for what they were building if money was my motivation and suggested I quit. This was one of the top Vancouver tech industry outfits constantly shilled in the media. My salary at the time was $70k (2013).
  - aprdm 11y ago
    Can you write about this kind of tests in a blog post or something like that ? Would be very helpful for the community in general, you seem to have a great knowledge to share!
mahyarm 11y ago
What is the tax rate? CA tax rate is about comparable to BC tax rate. Since your remote, what stops you from moving to Mexico lets say, living beside the beach and paying a lot less in taxes and living expenses? Family? Children?
- van_developer 11y ago
  Friends, family and girlfriend live here but yes I could live anywhere though Vancouver is a good city if you can afford it. My tax rates are prov 40.7% and 27.3% federally though it's a marginal and progressive rate depending on income level and ridiculously complicated. I still pay employment insurance and 4.95% CPP too, plus 12% sales tax on almost anything I buy, except for wine which is almost 100% taxed through government owned liquor store markup so your $10 California wine is $26 after tax and exchange plus GST 7%.
torondev 11y ago
Im in similar situation, but work out of Toronto. Companies here wouldn't pay enough for me to work full time, given the US options. What are you able to tax deduct besides % rent used solely for business? Lease vehicle?
ryanobjc 11y ago
Sounds like you have a good deal. But the top end of things is very low in Canada. Top tier talent is just not for Canada.

garyrichardson 11y ago

I can confirm senior devs do not max out at $85K CDN. The money is not as good and made worse by down swings in the Canadian dollar, but it's not that bad.

msie 11y ago
When I was looking for a job in Vancouver the average salary for an intermediate developer was around 70-75k Canadian. Senior devs can go from 85-100k and even higher for American companies with teams in Vancouver. Salesforce has 100k jobs. But a startup in Vancouver doesn't have the cash to pay top salaries unlike a startup in Silicon Valley.
- ryanobjc 11y ago
  OK, but i want to get paid $600,000 a year as an engineer. Now what?
dgudkov 11y ago
What's your definition of 'senior'? My friend in Toronto gets $120K CDN being an average dev (~5yrs of experience, no reports).