Hi,
Hopefully someone can shed some light on this

Since looking around at a number of different jobsites, it seems that many don't stipulate a salary, or even a range. As an outsider to the Canadian jobmarket, I have no reference point on which to be able to base my own salary expectations, which, needless to say, is a fairly important factor when considering moving your family to another country! I've tried a couple of searches on this forum for Engineers salaries/wages, but so far it hasn't really answered my question.......is there a salary comparison site somewhere? Or are there any other Manufacturing/Mechanical/Quality Engineers out there, particularly in Vancouver or Calgary, who could give me some idea of what to expect?

In a similar vein, what sort of packages do Canadian employers typically offer? Company pension, private health/dental care, etc.??

Sorry if this sounds a bit naive, but trying to build a picture of employment in BC and Alberta, and whether we will be able to afford to live where we would like to, and if both of us will have to work (as we do here), or if my OH could just concentrate on looking after our daughter (and possibly running a web-based business from home)

As always, any help/advice is mightily appreciated

stu

Hi Monkey

here is a link to HRDSC salary thing - hope you can find out what you want from it

http://lmi-imt.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/stand...pid=43&lcode=E

Gaynor
x

ps have tried this out but it didnt work for me - so good luck hope it works for you. Try using google canada to see if it brings anything else up.

If you look here I think you can find lots of information.
http://www.alis.gov.ab.ca/employment/lmi/alberta.asp

First post. I've been following some of the threads for a few weeks just out of interest in what people think of Canada. I was born in Canada and have always lived here - hopefully my opinions are welcome anyway. I've lived in Calgary for 8 years now after living 2 years in Vancouver, 8 in Victoria and growing up in the Okanagan (Vernon).

Not sure about engineer salaries. I imagine it would depend on experience. I'm in IT myself and advertised jobs don't usually include salary - unless they are contract positions. It seems that its something you negotiate to some extent.

I've been with 3 different companies now. All offer regular and extended medical (including perscription drugs) , dental (some better than others). Two of the three had pension plans. Vacation may be negotiated. Probably 2 or three weeks for jr. employees. May be able to negotiate 4 weeks if you are more senior. Some companies have flex days (my current one has 16).

These have all been non-union jobs.

For house prices anywhere in Canada look at:

www.mls.ca

Some things to do around Calgary (within an 1.5 hour drive):

http://www.canadaolympicpark.ca
http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/home/
http://www.banff.com/
http://www.calgaryzoo.org/
http://www.heritagepark.ca/home.htm (I know, our heritage is only 100 years old)
http://www.calgarytower.com/

Lots of aerial photos of Calgary and its suburbs

http://www.globalairphotos.com/gallery/AB/Calgary

monkey magic. There is good information about salaries for engineers on the APEGGA website- look for 2006 salary survey. My H is a civil engineer- and it appears that salaries are broadly speaking very slightly better for his profession than in the UK (well they are underpaid in UK)- this is true for alberta. He is currently being interviewd for a position slightly below him - but we anticipate from the published data the salary will be around the same, or at least the same ball park! Maybe its wishful thinking- but we would be coming in on a WP and I don't think jobs get an LMO unless they pay the going rate.

If the salary surveys are true (they surveryed over 11,000 people through registered employers - I think it was vaguely compulsory) then I think we could have a good stanadrd of living

If you go to consulting engineers of alberta website and go to their list of members, then search all the job pages, many of those also have kjobs in BC

Gryphea

The APEGGA salary survey is kept in the back pocket of all engineers around here - it gets wielded about whenever pay reviews come around!

That said, like any survey like this job matching is critical. I was at a job matching session for an Oil and Gas survey on Friday and it is quite complicated. Salaries for engineers, paricularly in O&G are now about retention rather than pay for the job being done - a good thing if you're an engineer although at some point some re-balancing will need to occur.

As for salary expectations, you will be asked the question at initial screeing and it's not always easy to answer as its not always clear what else is included e.g. medical cover, RSP etc. You need to compare earnings with buying power too - often cars for example are the same $ amount here as would be sterling in the UK, other things are more expensive. the APEGGA survey is a good starting point - just pick the right role type.

hope this helps.

Access to the PEng databases might be restricted to members? Other options are the HRDCS database, which is hit and miss geographically, depends what jobs have been advertised and filled through job bank I suspect,
http://www.labourmarketinformation.c...pid=43&lcode=E

monster salary wizard is not far off the mark
http://salary.monster.ca/

and salary.com (same thing perhaps?)
http://swz.salary.com/csalarywizard/..._newsearch.asp