Here's the situation: The Canadian and Australian dollars have dropped to less than 70 cents against the U.S. dollar. Both currencies used to trade at par.
So for 30% less money (make that 50%+ less if you reside in the Valley), you can hire remote tech talent that's just as good as what you would get from inside the United States, that codes on the same time zone that you do.
The discrepancy between U.S. & Canada in terms of technical salaries is almost absurd. Baseline salaries in Canada already trend lower than the U.S., and now with the exchange rate the difference is eye popping:
- In Silicon Valley coding bootcamp graduates commonly land $80k-$100k+ jobs straight of graduation.
- While in Canada, it's common for top bootcamp graduating salaries to be in the range of $30k-$50k, with many top programmers needing to wait many years before ever reaching $80k+ CAD... $56k USD
The savings are huge if you do the math. Why aren't more U.S. startups looking North?
Disclaimer: I'm a Canadian working in the UK (after working for a bit in Canada).