Awain

I hate talking about this sort of stuff, but I'm struggling a bit. I was hoping to be made an offer so I could work out cost of living based on it, but I have been asked by a potential employer for my salary expectations.

Some background - I have been in contact with a potential employer in Toronto and he is keen to hire me. He came to London last weekend to meet me and it seems to have gone well. He thinks I would be a good fit and my combination of knowledge and experience is not something he has found in Canada, and is something he needs.

I work in asset management/mutual funds, effectively I'm a market/economic analyst, so I carry out research into the asset management industry. In London, my total compensation is around £72,000, which is about average for financial services workers in London. So I would be looking for an equivalent package in Toronto. Lifestyle-wise this means we were able to live comfortably on my salary when my wife wasn't working and looking after the children, but we didn't have much left at the end of each month. By live comfortably, I mean, we live in central London, we eat out regularly and don't have to worry too much about the cost of activities/days out with the kids etc. My wife has gone back to work now which means we have around £3K a month expendable income. My wife expects to work if we move to Toronto, she is a lawyer but won't be able to practise law in Canada.

I've had a salary of $120k in my mind. This equates to take home pay of around $7k (according to some online pay calculators). Looking at places to rent, I expect to pay around $3k in rent (3-bed condo/apartment) which would leave me with $4K a month for other outgoings and expendable income. This seems plenty to me, but is this enough to live comfortably on? I would expect to be living pay cheque to pay cheque until my wife finds work.

Also, is $120k a "normal" salary request? I am reliant on the employer providing passage for me to come to Toronto, so I don't want them to walk away because I've priced myself too highly, but also I don't want to price myself too low and be stuck on a low salary.

Thanks in advance.

Pretty Flowers

When I moved over the common trope was that a comparable salary would be 1.75 times the UK amount, for equivalence.

I'm on my way back to the home country, and am using stats can/ national statistics data to calibrate - I earn at about the 96% percentile here and a uk equivalent is about 80 - 90K in uk money, which seems about right based on the salary levels quoted for similar London based positions.

I would also give Glassdoor and Payscale a check as well and take a look at any industry salary survey info you find.

Danny B

I don't have a clue about asset management/mutual fund salary guide, but in my neck of the woods, if someone asks for a salary that is totally out of our range, we just move on to the next candidate and don't even bother negotiating.

Can't you search similar jobs and get a rough idea on salary?

dbd33

May one look you in the eye, with a strictly level gaze, and ask what's prompted this move?

Oink

Wow, the front of asking for $120k for talking bollocks is pretty impressive. Good luck to you.

glendem4

If you take the average Canadian Salary $51,000 and divide by the average UK salary £27,600 and multiply your current UK salary, you get a ballpark idea. = $133,000

Pay scale quotes a similar salary for a graduate with 10 years experience working as economic/market analyst in Toronto.

So the question is,

Are you doing it for the money?

Awain

Thanks for your replies. I've spoken to people in Toronto and they reckon $120K was too low and wouldn't be an equivalent lifestyle.

glendem4 - Interesting methodology, makes sense. I'm 10+ years experienced so could go higher. Am I doing it for the money? Not necessarily, but I also don't want to move continents to make less money, I want to be in an equivalent or better position.

Danny B - I've tried searching for similar jobs, but Canadian job adverts don't seem to carry any salary information. I am concerned that going too high will lead them to walk away, but there are no other candidates, they are creating the role for me.

Pretty Flowers - are you moving back for personal reasons? London is a mess! I don't know what field you're in, but the financial sector is a complete mess. One of the reasons I'm leaving is because, in my view, the recession caused by Brexit will be a lot worse than 2008. Jobs are being moved out of London and the repercussions of that are going to be massive.

Moses2013

Just depends how you look at it though. What's the point of a booming place, if your higher salary doesn't get you much in that place anyway, especially when it comes to housing. Dublin is booming too and while there might be more jobs, people are now struggling to find any affordable places to live. The ones who moved over in 2009 and bought before 2012 are laughing now. Even if they lost their so called professional job, at least they could still afford the mortgage with a non skilled, or minimum wage job.

Awain

Dublin's housing market is a massive problem and I expect it will get worse as Ireland benefits from Brexit.

Moses2013

Yep. Although in Galway myself and also bad here as more multinationals are coming and just not enough housing being built. Luckily we bought in 2012. It was one of the reason why we moved from the UK to Ireland at that time too.

Engineer_abroad

You can look up salary bands by NOC code.

https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/show-searc...n.submit=&noc=

Pretty Flowers

I don't work in the financial sector, I'm a brand consultant, and there are about 20x the jobs in my field in London. But that's not the primary reason. My Dad is getting older and my other half is a game producer, who's been finding it very difficult to find work.

Also, I miss my home country, and that missing-ness has got stronger over the last few years. We're both Canadian citizens, so it's likely we could well come back

Edo

Short answer: £72,000 is NOT equal $120,000 especially in a place like Toronto.

PS. With your experience and knowledge can you help us predict the medium term future of the £

Siouxie

You can get some idea from these job adverts.

You would need to ascertain the costs of housing, transport, food, entertainment etc., to work out if it would be feasible. Housing costs in Toronto are very expensive, would you need to live in Toronto or could you commute?

I'd suggest using this tax calculator: https://www.taxtips.ca/calculators/c...calculator.htm

There may be benefits/tax credits you can claim as well.

JamesM

I think you should ask for $140k.

It takes about $2 to buy what a pound does.

Also every job I've ever been for in Canada they've lowballed on salary so I've learned to always add on.

If you get the $140k you'll have an extra $1000 a month to help you out whilst your wife figures out her next steps.

Remember the extra $1500 per month is nothing for your employer.

Lastly $4000 is decent to live on. I live on $2400 a month after rent as a single guy in Downtown. This includes mobile phone, cable bill, gym membership and car insurance. My car is however paid off.

Finally I pre-warn you a pint of beer in Toronto with tax and tip is $10+ these days. Another reason to push for more.