3 ms·

Yet tech salaries in Vancouver combined with real estate values make it so that most tech jobs are barely living wage, at least when my partner and I tried hard

Yet tech salaries in Vancouver combined with real estate values make it so that most tech jobs are barely living wage, at least when my partner and I tried hard to make it work some years ago. Even with universal health care (which wasn't quite what they have) it couldn't possibly make up the difference for someone with college debt. I'd argue that if you got a CS degree from an American college you're probably just forced to work in the US simply because the other prospective employees can accept a lower salary due to a lower debt load. Maybe the best of the best can find a way to earn American salaries overseas but I really don't think that's as common as the HN crowd might assume.

908B64B197 6y ago
The situation in Vancouver is caused by out of control immigration quotas. Real estate there is a way to park assets in a safe jurisdiction. Seattle has a much healthier market both for devs and real estate and is only three hours away. Only difference in healthcare is while american top devs get it on top of their compensation packages, canadians pay for it with their prohibitive income tax rates. It's pretty easy to take the total spending percentage that goes to healthcare and multiply it by your income tax to see how much a dev is really paying for healthcare.
bpye 6y ago
I don't think Vancouver is as bad as you make it out to be. No, you will not make the same money here as in Seattle, it's often something like a 1/3rd pay cut. That is not a bad income however, it is easily enough to rent and whilst real estate in Vancouver proper may be expensive there is reliable transit and property in the other cities such as Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam etc is significantly less expensive. I'm also not quite sure what you mean with your point about healthcare. MSP premiums were eliminated last year [0], there is now no charge to access medical care. Prescriptions, dental and eye care are all still chargeable, though prescriptions at least are essentially capped through BC Fair Pharmacare [1]. Compared to the US, Canada is much easier for immigration as a tech worker. One can get PR (equivalent of a green card) before landing if they have a sufficient points score, in BC that's fairly easy through the tech PNP [2] and a willing employer. Additionally Vancouver consistently ranks among the top 10 most liveable cities [3]. [0] - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/msp/bc-residents/premiums https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-covera... [1] - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/pharmacare-for-bc-residents/who-we-cover/fair-pharmacare-plan https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-covera... [2] - https://www.welcomebc.ca/Immigrate-to-B-C/B-C-Provincial-Nominee-Program/BC-PNP-Tech-Pilot https://www.welcomebc.ca/Immigrate-to-B-C/B-C-Provincial-Nom... [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking

908B64B197 6y ago

The situation in Vancouver is caused by out of control immigration quotas. Real estate there is a way to park assets in a safe jurisdiction. Seattle has a much healthier market both for devs and real estate and is only three hours away. Only difference in healthcare is while american top devs get it on top of their compensation packages, canadians pay for it with their prohibitive income tax rates. It's pretty easy to take the total spending percentage that goes to healthcare and multiply it by your income tax to see how much a dev is really paying for healthcare.

bpye 6y ago

I don't think Vancouver is as bad as you make it out to be. No, you will not make the same money here as in Seattle, it's often something like a 1/3rd pay cut. That is not a bad income however, it is easily enough to rent and whilst real estate in Vancouver proper may be expensive there is reliable transit and property in the other cities such as Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam etc is significantly less expensive. I'm also not quite sure what you mean with your point about healthcare. MSP premiums were eliminated last year [0], there is now no charge to access medical care. Prescriptions, dental and eye care are all still chargeable, though prescriptions at least are essentially capped through BC Fair Pharmacare [1]. Compared to the US, Canada is much easier for immigration as a tech worker. One can get PR (equivalent of a green card) before landing if they have a sufficient points score, in BC that's fairly easy through the tech PNP [2] and a willing employer. Additionally Vancouver consistently ranks among the top 10 most liveable cities [3]. [0] - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/msp/bc-residents/premiums https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-covera... [1] - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/pharmacare-for-bc-residents/who-we-cover/fair-pharmacare-plan https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-covera... [2] - https://www.welcomebc.ca/Immigrate-to-B-C/B-C-Provincial-Nominee-Program/BC-PNP-Tech-Pilot https://www.welcomebc.ca/Immigrate-to-B-C/B-C-Provincial-Nom... [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking