> A points-based immigration program would allow the country to optimize along any number of axes: under-represented minorities, skills, etc.
That's what the cap is for.
> Canada brings in 3x as many immigrants per capita as the US does. It's brought in 1% of its population each year for roughly the last 100 years - so the equivalent of 3-4M green cards per year.
Almost every week there's a thread with Canadian Engineers whining about low pay. How are these out of control immigration quotas helping them out?
Yes, but it selects for the wrong things. It's an axe when you need a scalpel.
> Almost every week there's a thread with Canadian Engineers whining about low pay. How are these out of control immigration quotas helping them out?
What on earth do you mean "out of control" lol. That's a value judgement you made that you're projecting.
Canada has low inequality. Most people are paid roughly the same amount - in line with much of Western Europe. The US is closer to PNG, the Philippines, Turkey and Madagascar. You can't have low inequality and high pay for one group. [1] Canadians value that. You don't, and that's ok too.
Of course you can have overachievers, I suspect this is a very American perspective. Japan Airlines' CEO makes $90K a year. Money isn't the be all and end all, promotions come with more pay and more social status.
[edit] did you not have overachievers in high school and college? I suspect they weren't getting paid! Quite the opposite.
Nobody said anything about doing anyone any favors.
I said that the wealth inequality was lower, and inequality being lower by definition requires that pay bands are compressed.
Keep in mind that when you compare against international salaries, you have to convert not just to a neutral currency, but also adjust for PPP. Canada's PPP adjustment factor is close to +15%. That is to say, 1 USD goes 15% further in Canada than it does in America.
There are pros and cons to a more egalitarian society. Certain groups that would do better in other countries do worse, and in exchange certain groups that would do worse in other countries do better.
Per Levels.fyi a:
- Shopify L7 makes $324K USD ($372K PPP).
- That's a Google L5 at $356K.
- A Facebook E5 at $390K.
- Or a Microsoft level 65 at $287K.
Remote changes the game a bit here, but in the past your Shopify L7 would have gone infinitely further in Ottawa than your Facebook E5 would have gone down in MPK. Local PPP matters too.
You accounting for taxes? HST? Gasoline taxes? The general higher cost of anything imported? How about the recent run up in housing costs? Houses are about as expensive in Toronto as they are the Bay area now.
Having worked in both countries, $300k USD goes way further in the US than $300k CAD in Canada. And that's even accounting for the housing difference.
Yes, taxes are very comparable in California and New York on this income level. 400,000 CAD in Ontario is taxed at a net effective 44.8%. In BC 43.8%
In California you'd be taxed at an effective 42%. In New York you'd be taxed at an effective 43.2%. And after the Biden tax hikes go into effect this starts to look a lot worse.
Not to mention the Canadian tax bill includes healthcare whereas the US salary is reduced by $12,000 a year to account for it.
> HST? Gasoline? The general higher cost of anything imported?
You're making $400K a year and you think that a $55 average monthly gas bill is going to make a difference?
Yes this is all factored into the PPP adjustment. [1]
> How about the recent run up in housing costs?
It happened in both countries.
> Having worked in both countries, $300k USD goes way further in the US than $300k CAD in Canada.
I suspect this isn't true.
Now you can cherry-pick non-tech cities in the US, but I can do that with Canada too, and of course, the vast majority of tech folks have historically chosen to live in NY and CA for a reason. Will that hold? Who knows!
1CAD will also always be 1CAD. People who live in Canada are paid in CAD, people who live in America are paid in USD. The currency and PPP conversions smoothed out those differences for comparison purposes. I selected a mid-band senior Shopify role in Toronto denominated in CAD as the comparison and ran the appropriate adjustments.
In the US, RSU vesting is considered ordinary income and taxed accordingly, this was considered and included.
[edit] I believe in Canada, RSU vesting is also ordinary income, but if not then treating them as a capital gain will substantially reduce the tax burden for Canadians.
Exchange rates really don't matter much for most people.
Most people buy goods at home.
Relative strength and weakness of a particular currency against another just indicates whether imports are more economical or whether manufacturing at home + exporting are more economical.
This change over time is reflected in both exchange rates and accounted for in PPP adjustment. It may fluctuate over time, but I don't think that's a huge deal when deciding which country you plan to work in.
Actually, one other important note: 1USD isn't really always 1USD in the sense that imports become relatively more or less expensive for Americans in America. Reserve status doesn't really correlate too much.
Check out DXY. You'll see that as compared to a basket of other world currencies the USD has ranged substantially, from 0.76 in 2012 to as high as 1.02 in 2016. [1]
Being the reserve currency more often than not means that its a unit of account.
That's what the cap is for.
> Canada brings in 3x as many immigrants per capita as the US does. It's brought in 1% of its population each year for roughly the last 100 years - so the equivalent of 3-4M green cards per year.
Almost every week there's a thread with Canadian Engineers whining about low pay. How are these out of control immigration quotas helping them out?
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