mrwilson

Hi all

I'm not sure if this question can be answered but here goes anyway...

I am on 25k in the NE, UK. My wife and I (all things going to plan) will move to Saskatchewan in 2012. I will be speaking with my Canadian employer soon and one of the things I will be enquiring about will be my salary over in SK. I may be able to negotiate, but to do this, I need a benchmark. So my question is, what would be an equivalent $ to my £25K?

Thanks!
mrwilson

Atlantic Xpat

$50k

Almost Canadian

More info required. A person in your position may be paid $100K in Canada, likewise, they may be paid $20K. What you are paid in England is irrelevant; what the market rate for your position in Canada is. What do you do?

Alan2005

Whatever the market rate for his job is, AX has it right with the amount he should expect if he is to maintain his current standard of living.

mrwilson

Thats going to be a problem then
I am pretty sure they are going to offer $40k.

Steve_P

Is doubling a UK salary still a valid method? It might get you a very, very rough figure but the pound is now only worth $1.70.

1.7 times the original 25K UK Pounds is only $42.5K Canadian, a sizable difference.

Alan2005

Yes, but the exchange rate doesn't necessarily indicate purchasing parity.

Edit: For instance my gut feeling is that before I had car about 1.75 would be my own 'personal exchange rate', with a car it's closer to 2.00.

Steve_P

I understand that but I'm not sure a simple doubling does the trick. The 2 times multiplier has been around for quite some time, things have changed both exchange rates and purchasing parity.

All I'm asking is this still a valid formula?

Of course it is all contingent on where in Canada you going to go, Saskatchewan is a hell of a lot cheaper than Vancouver or Toronto but not necessarily cheaper than Nova Scotia.

Sort of makes my own comments moot don't it?

I'll shut up now.

Atlantic Xpat

Ah yes, 'Purchasing power of parity'.....my $50k was not so much based upon a specific exchange rate, rather my judgement of what would be required to support a similar lifestyle in Canada. Now $40k may be nearer the mark as I'm estimating in two important areas - 1) I live in NL not Sask and 2) I didn't live on GBP25k in the UK!

However, moving to another country is an expensive proposition and in my mind, it's not worth taking a material drop in your standards of living to do this. It'd be better to aim for slightly higher salary than settling for less.

If the OP believes $40k is the salary he will be offered then now is the time to ask the 'whats the job' question to see whether the collective knowledge on BE can comment on whether $40k is reasonable or not for that job. If it is, the OP is at least an informed consumer, if not, then he can see that he is being treated unfairly by his prospective new employer.

G77

I couldn't live on $40k, heck, I couldn't live on $50k, but everyone's circumstances are different, if the OP is bringing a bucket of equity from a UK house sale then maybe it is feasible.... but without that, $40k I'd say would be quite tight indeed....

Steve_P

We live quite comfortably on a little less than $50K however we don't have a mortgage.

lucieg

I never really went by the doubling of salary, I know it's all subjective and depends on the individual person but I do earn double my salary here and my living standards are A LOT higher. Therefore to just maintain my lifestyle I had in the UK I'd say I only had to increase my UK salary by a third or so.

That's my personal experience though of living and working in London and then moving to Toronto, i.e.

London Lifestyle
- living like a student in a (not very fancy) flatshare
- no car
- not able to save very much

Toronto Lifestyle
- living very well initially in a lovely flatshare and now sharing an apt with my boyfriend
- I have a car
- able to save a lot

G77

That was my point, if the OP can buy outright here then they could live comfortably - rent takes up about 40% of my net income...

Almost Canadian

OK, but, it would appear that most posters on here earn more in Canada than the exchange rate applied to their English salary. Likewise, if the Canadian salary for the job is less than the English salary multiplied by the exchange rate, the Canadian employer is not likely to offer more.

Alan2005

Yeah, that was my thinking too. It's very subjective and dependent on what you spend your money on, but 1.7 is too low for me. I came here and my salary was converted at about 2 and I have a similar standard of living. I don't think things have changed materially in Canada such that I could take a 15% pay cut and not notice.

What it comes down to is that I reckon $40k here will feel like a lot less than £25k in the UK.