By celeburma_zirmxt
According to recent research from Toronto Metropolitan University, employees in Canada’s tech sector make much less money than their American colleagues.
According to study by Anusha Arif, Mahmehr Hamza, and Vivian Li, tech employees in the US made 46% more money. In Canada, the average yearly salary for a computer worker is $83,700, whereas in the US, it is $122,600. The research takes into account a number of variables, such as purchasing power and cost of living.
Data was gathered by researchers using the Canadian Census of 2021. They looked at earnings in the United States using three different data sets, including Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Ten percent of the salary difference can be explained by Canada’s larger percentage of part-time, part-year employees, according to the analysis. Additionally, the study points out that Canadian tech workers receive the same compensation regardless of whether they are employed in a tech hotspot like Toronto or Kitchener-Waterloo. In contrast, hub-based tech workers in the United States received a “notable pay premium.”
Race and gender
The gender pay gap is still present in Canada, despite being smaller than in the United States, according to the study. Male IT workers in Canada earn 17% more than female peers. By contrast, American male employees earn 26% more.
The study also reveals that employees in the tech sector who are Chinese, Japanese, or South Asian earn more money than employees of other racial groups in both the United States and Canada.
The lowest paid IT workers in the United States are Black, American Indian, and/or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. This group includes workers who are Black, Arab, or Filipino in Canada.
What must be done by Canada
The pay gap will have “stark implications” for Canada’s tech industry, according to the experts.
There is little incentive for people to work in Canada when you combine the lower salary with the greater cost of living, particularly in the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver Areas.
Two calls to action are presented by the researchers.
First, rules that support the expansion of tech companies in Canada and enable them to offer higher wages to staff members should be established. Establishing a conducive atmosphere for startups and scaling up is crucial, as is offering incentives that encourage investment. Attracting venture capital and foreign direct investment is a crucial component of this.
Making ensuring every employee gets the chance to participate is the second.
“It’s critical to develop a healthy and competitive tech sector in Canada responsibly, which includes making sure that the comparatively greater pay inequality between racial and gender groups that exists in the US tech sector does not translate to Canada.”
Reducing obstacles to education and promoting mentorship programmes that assist poor populations are two ways to address this issue.
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