They pay top-end for the local market. However, if a competitor comes in paying Bay Area salaries for remote work, that can be a lot higher than local wages.
The thing, specifically with Canada, is that they don't have a big home grown VC landscape and a few home grown firms. This, coupled with their out of control immigration quotas, creates a market where there's an oversupply.
Now, that creates two markets, those who can't move to the US (won't pass the higher bar for US immigration) and those who won't. I've seen SV comp for the latter. But we're talking O-1 tier engineers.
> my knowledge of Canada is too far out of date to be useful
All I can say, is in personal anecdotal experience, I make about the same money (with better hours!) in my current factory job than I would have if I finished my degree and went into software, and with none of the stress or crunch time or deadline associated. For example, looking at Glassdoor they have Google's Toronto office reporting starting salaries of ~$90-100k - while my base pay is only ~$62k ($29.50/hr) we get double-time overtime after 40 hours, I can (and have) clear(ed) well over $130k/yr with minimal effort.
They're offering decent salaries compared to other tech jobs in the area, but it's average-at-best if you start comparing unskilled labourer salaries in as a comparison.
Glassdoor is pretty bad for salaries at FAANG. That might be the average base for someone in Toronto. But they're getting a bonus of 15%, plus RSUs usually of about ~50%+ of base - but in the last year these RSUs have doubled, so ~100%+ of base.
After travelling in Japan, I was really surprised by how cheap apartments are in Tokyo. For reference, this was 3 years ago near the big main Sumo arena/dojo, at around $800 USD/month, and fast food was around $4 USD/meal.
I don't know anything about the income tax rates, but 65-70% pay seems like you'd take home more than an SFer being paid SF rates.
If you’re ok with a tiny apartment, yes. If you want some space or have a family it’s not as cheap, but it is definitely less than 65% of Bay Area rent.
