Cost of living and Software Engineer Salaries in Canada

Honest observations on monthly expenses in Canada as well as Software Engineer Salaries and the balance between them.

SOCIAL MEDIA

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
0:35 Software Engineer Salaries in Canada
1:00 Wage suppression
2:18 Canadian immigration vs USA
2:42 Detailed monthly expenses in Canada
4:33 Two working adults
4:46 Moving to Calgary?
5:43 Owning a house
6:34 The only way to make the ends meet
7:11 Conclusion

[TranNguyen-mgqq]

After 5 years working as an IT man in Singapore, i saw that its a dead end journey (tax, bills, rent ... ) Returned to Vietnam, bought some land and lived homestead life till now. Here we dont have democracy and a super modern life, but we have nature, organic food, sunshine all year, almost zero tax .. for me this is true freedom ..

[rezwanahmed]

After living in Canada for 3 years, I can vouch that this is one of the most honest reviews on immigrating and working in Canada.

[gc]

I'm a business analyst in Vancouver, trust me this guy is dropping truth bombs. Everything is unaffordable here

[CHiGotsauce]

This is the most brutally honest video i have ever watched as regards canada immigration. many youtubers paint a different picture and fail to highlight the realities like you just did.

[DaniSarfati]

Alex, I'm a Senior Release Engineer (20+ years of tech experience in Canada) and recently moved from Canada to the USA. You are spot on with respects to the costs in Canada. Unless you have old money in Canada, or your parents can refinance their home to give you a huge chunk for down payment on a home, it's pretty much impossible to live and even get ahead there. It doesn't matter if it's Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Halifax etc... All the places have super high costs associated with them. I really loved your comment near the end about Canadian immigration program as a scam only to support crazy unaffordable housing prices to support older people's inflated house prices. Amazing analysis. I don't think that's the intent but it's how things have evolved.

[tkirchmann]

I went to one of the top universities in Canada for electrical engineering. Worked here for 9 years and eventually made senior engineer. Then I quit, took a significant demotion, and switched to working remotely for a US competitor. I immediately got a 30% increase in salary despite the demotion. Then I was quickly promoted after that (literally 1-2 weeks). It doesn't make sense for top engineering talent to stay in Canada anymore. You're just being a martyr at this point.

[zimpetrichor]

OMG I am 45 years old and in all my years of watching YouTube I have never stumbled across a video that tells so much truth about Canada. Thank you so much for making this video, I really recommend getting out of Canada with your family and moving to greener pastures. This is what I did 15 years ago. There are now so many Canadians living abroad.

[id]

I am really glad you have the courage to present the real situation in Canada, unlike those immigration influencers who for some reason are hoping to fill Canada with immigrants, beyond the sustainable levels. Thanks for the good work!

[Earendilvingilot]

to be very honest, I am an foreign worker who started PR process in Canada. I work as an actuarial analyst and make 80K in Toronto. I recently figured that if I move back to Korea, I will be offered similar (or even more) salary compared to Canada and with MUCH LESS taxes and cost of living. At this point I am really pondering seriously about going back. Especially before its too late as a mid 20 yo.

[merevial]

Alex, as someone who grew up in Canada my entire life. I arrived here as a new born and had immigrant parents. I met a lot of kids growing up who recently came to Canada and their lives were immensely better than their home country. However now that im in the middle of my career earning 90 K all I see is new comers who complain about the state of the country, which is a far cry from what they were promised. Free healthcare, opportunity, excellent quality of life.

Instead what we offer immigrants is artificially low salaries, obscene housing costs and some of the highest taxes outside of Europe. The Canadian government is scamming millions of immigrants and students using the former glory of what Canada use to be to trick them into giving up their lives back home only to be another cog in the machine to enrich Loblaws and RBC.

[somewhereinbrazil]

I'm a software engineer from Brazil and for many years I considered moving/migrating to Canada since I'm single, speak English (also some French) and have nothing that ties me to Brazil but the more I look things up the more I realize I'm probably staying in Brazil because I can't complain about my life here. I have my own apartament, live in a town in the state of Sao Paulo which gives me a good quality of life, it's not a dangerous town or anything, work remotely etc. I'd probably have a hard time moving to Canada and even a harder time until I could actually settle down to the point where I wouldn't live from paycheck to paycheck (currently I can save up to 80% of my monthly salary which is a lot in Brazil).

[portuguesetraveller]

My dad worked in Canada for almost 40 years, and when he retired he moved back home(Portugal), while i left Canada back in 06. back in the 90s my dad in working in construction would be making 20 something dollars per hour, and a house would cost like 200k in Toronto. When my dad retired in 2018 he was making 38$ per hour while a house in toronto is always over 1million. So in the span of 20 years, his salary did not even double while the cost of housing multiplied various times. Its insane. I work as a software Engineer in Portugal, and even though i could work in Canada since I'm a Canadian Citizen. When i do the math like you just did, it does not make any sense, considering i would have to give up 300 days of sunshine per year and need embrace for harsh 6 months of winter... Times are tough everywhere.

[jacnel]

This video is spot on. I'm a junior developer in Toronto and affordability in this city, but also the rest of Southern Ontario, is horrendous. Despite having a wage which is higher than the junior developer wage-band in this video, I cannot afford to rent in Toronto, Waterloo, or really anywhere in Southern Ontario because if I did I'd have to throw away over 50% of my take home income into the rent pit alone. After normal living expenses, forget saving anything because you'll be left with a couple bucks if that.

These arguments I hear from people like "oh just move somewhere cheaper" or "settle for less" are fucking stupid because moving somewhere cheaper usually means, like you said in your video, a big pay cut, which after taking into account housing prices still means you're either in the same boat as the more expensive city, or worse off. Young people in Canada just can't settle for less anymore because the "less" is still too damn expensive.

I agree with your opinion on the Canadian immigration system, it is a big scam to get highly educated smart people from all over the world to work for shit wages. If anyone reading this comment is considering moving to Canada I'd suggest otherwise. I was born here and even I'm struggling, I can't imagine how bad it would be for a new resident who has no family or social support in the country already.

For fucks sake I went to school for 4 years, in a field that is in demand, I did everything right and our society still fucked me over.

[habitathomies]

Canadian citizen here. I live in Halifax. Just watched rent double for a 1 bedroom in 2.5 years. What did salaries do? Went up 5%. Cost of living, taxes, and poor salaries, means even in a "high paying" career like software development you will live paycheck to paycheck. I'm looking to leave ASAP. Glad you're speaking the truth!

[justinfeigelman]

As someone born and raised in Canada I can say I am absolutely disgusted by the state of this country and its economy. I can't understand why anyone would ever immigrate here now. One more thing, it sucks here for native-born Canadians who aren't millionaires as well, not just immigrants.

[TheEsteban]

I spent 22 years in USA. The country changed a lot in those 20 years but I was always discipline to save what I could. I've always been number/money oriented and the numbers you describe fits USA economy as well. People compete with their neighbors and buy crap non stop to the point they cant fit it anymore in their garages so they have to rent storages. They live in big houses they don't need and often cant afford and drive cars they shouldn't. At the age of 42 I moved back to Argentina. I affored to "retire", with money that in USA OR CANADA can barely buy a house. I am living my dreamed life and reinvented myself.
Not everything is what it seems to be. People just heard people talk or see things in movies and see the grass greener on the other side.
I am glad I had the opportunity to travel and live in different parts of USA because now I am more than grateful for the life I have. It definitely makes me appreciate my life now.

[patrickmc]

My man here spitting the truth. I came to Canada 2 years ago and had to start from scratch basically even though I graduated as an aerospace’s engineer. The only reason I save some money for investing is because I live in a basement, I don’t have a car, work remotely, and pay a 1 bedroom apartment in half with my girlfriend.

[JCao]

Unfortunately I am the kind of doctors mentioned in your video, living in the basement and working temporarily jobs, while desperately waiting for the “source verification” from the medical council of Canada so that I can write the exam, re-do the residency and fellowship, which I have completed many years ago. The occupational and licensing protectionism here in Canada is so toxic😢

[s.e.]

Spot on. I left Canada 14 years ago because I felt my life and career was going nowhere. Its a great country with many natural resources but how can we enjoy if we have to hamster wheel with little reward. My recommendation is to think global and not to limit your professional role to one domain.

[inthemiddleofst]

Man, you are amaizing. Very comprehensive and accurate!! You clearly and honestly articulate the current situation in Canada. Thank you sir, for spreading the truth!