Tech workers enjoy some of the best job mobility around, allowing them to pick and choose where to work and live. And in Canada, that often means moving to the U.S. in search of higher wages and better compensation.

U.S. tech salaries are about 46 per cent higher when adjusted for differences for how far money goes in the U.S. and Canada, as of the 2021 census, says Vivian Li, a senior economist at the Dais, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University. U.S. workers also make twice as much from non-wage compensation like stock options, according to the organization’s analysis. 

U.S. tech companies, noticing Canada’s lower salaries and skilled workers, have taken advantage and set up shop, sometimes offering higher-than-local wages. “They, right from day one, offer very competitive salaries, and they will grab quite good people,” says Nathan Wawruck, vice-president at staffing agency Robert Half. 

The differences are stark. The Logic compared six major tech hubs—Toronto and San Francisco, Vancouver and Seattle, and Montreal and New York—to see how much pay in the tech sector differs between the U.S. and Canada. While the cost of living, especially rent, can be much higher in major U.S. cities, the tech salaries available often more than make up for higher living costs.

To compare the cost of living, we used the average salaries for software engineer and manager roles in the 2024 Scoring Tech Talent report from the CBRE, a U.S.-based commercial real estate services and investment firm, along with Numbeo’s crowdsourced cost-of-living index, which estimates living costs like rent, groceries and entertainment. Numbeo sets the cost of living in New York City at 100, and scores other cities relative to that benchmark. 

All dollar values are in Canadian dollars.

Toronto versus San Francisco

The tech salary gap between Toronto and San Francisco is wide: Toronto engineers averaged around $106,000 in 2023, whereas their San Francisco counterparts could exceed $260,000. That said, life in the Bay Area is expensive: its cost-of-living index is 90.5 versus Toronto’s 61.4. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $4,600 a month, as of January 2025, according to Zumper. In Toronto it was $2,300. 

Taking salaries, cost of living, rents and buying power into account, The Logic calculated a Tech Salary Scale, where 0 is badly paid and 100 is incredibly well-paid. Toronto software engineers score 37 and managers get 44. In San Francisco, engineers and managers score 53 and 67, respectively. That means San Francisco’s salaries more than make up for its elevated rent and costs of living.

Better pay compared to cost of living: San Francisco

Vancouver versus Seattle

Tech salaries in these two coastal neighbours diverge considerably. Software engineers in Seattle command around $222,000 a year, while their Vancouverite counterparts get roughly $121,000.

Housing is only slightly pricier in Seattle (about $2,900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, according to Zumper) than in Vancouver ($2,500), so the real draw south of the border is a bigger paycheque—one that can include hefty stock packages and bonuses, too. Living expenses in Vancouver are high enough that any cost advantage over Seattle evaporates. 

In this comparison, engineers and managers in Vancouver score 35 and 37, respectively, on The Logic’s Tech Salary Scale, while the roles in Seattle score 67 and 80. In short, tech workers in Seattle are remarkably well-paid compared to the cost of living in the city.

Better pay compared to cost of living: Seattle

Montreal versus New York City

In New York, a software engineer might make about $204,000 annually—impressive until you factor in monthly rents that hover around $6,300, according to Zumper. By comparison, Montreal’s average one-bedroom costs just $1,900, and its cost-of-living index (58.4) is significantly lower than New York’s (100). 

A software engineer in Quebec’s largest city earns a more modest $100,000, yet they come out ahead once rent and daily expenses are factored in. Based on The Logic’s analysis, New York tech workers have the worst deal when you compare income with cost of living, with managers scoring 25 and engineers hitting just eight in the Tech Salary Scale. Manager roles in Montreal score a 46, the best of all the Canadian cities, and engineers score 38.

Better pay compared to cost of living: Montreal

Despite the high cost of living in U.S. tech hubs, salaries there can still offset steep rents. Tech roles in Toronto and Vancouver pay poorly in comparison. The data suggests Canadian salaries aren’t keeping pace with mounting housing costs and other expenses. 

An exception is Montreal, where lower rents and day-to-day expenses tip the balance in its favour, showing salary gaps can be deceptive if you don’t account for the cost of living.

In Canada’s current labour market, it can be tempting for tech workers to lower their salary expectations, says Wawruck—but he advises against it. “I’ve had this conversation with a few people recently,” he says. “Somebody said to me the other day, ‘What if I just drop my salary expectation? Rather than ask for $100,000, I’m going to ask for $65,000—surely I’ll get a job quicker.”

“There’s a bit of a flaw in that logic. No, you’re still worth $100,000. There just doesn’t happen to be a job for you.”

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Methodology

 The Logic used Numbeo cost-of-living indices from 2025, 2023 salary averages from the CBRE report and Zumper rent figures as of Jan. 24, 2025, to create a Tech Salary Scale for each city that reflects the relationship between salary, costs and purchasing power. Dollar amounts were converted at an exchange rate of roughly C$0.69 to US$1. The scale is a 0-100 score for manager and software engineer roles, which was determined by using a feature scaling method to score cities in each metric (salary, cost of living, rent and purchasing power) and averaging those scores.