The pay in Seattle for software developers is 100% more than in Toronto. Even second-tier US cities pay 50% more. If you're working in Toronto when you could be working in a US tech centre, I hope you have a good reason.

Market Average Annual Tech Wage Software Engineer (USD)

  Vancouver, BC — $60,107
  Toronto, ON — $62,365
  Atlanta, GA — $92,380
  Boston, MA — $103,979
  Washington, DC — $108,330
  New York, NY — $108,878
  Seattle, WA — $113,906

Source: http://www.vancouvereconomic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/...

There are plenty of ways in the which immigration makes the pay cut less problematic.

1) You have a deathtimer that if you dont get the paperwork in time, or the lottery, or whatever, you can be kicked out of the country.

2) You dont enjoy the same liberties as nationals

3) you dont qualify to multiple benefits that make financials tennable (i.e. medicare taxes, college subsidies, etc)

4) Up until recently, spouses of H1B workers could not work. That is somethign that was added in 2015, and that in this administration its been talked about removing, meaning 50k people lose their legal right to a job.

5) Inherent social issues of the popular cities. San Francisco and Seattle have very high homeless populations.

So yes, there's plenty of reasons to take a pay cut, one way or the other.

My good reason is my wife not being able to work on my TN visa. Really what muppet during the NAFTA negotiations thought this was a good idea?

Why do you think it was a bug and not a feature? I.e., it is intentional as a disincentive for foreign workers.

Because visa agreements made before (H1-B) and after (E-3) this one, by Republicans no less, have included spouse's right to work.

For what it's worth, Toronto salaries have a pretty different statistic on hired.com: https://hired.com/state-of-salaries-2018

Speaking from personal experience, I've seen salaries ranging from 100-120k CAD with 4 years of experience. Rent price increases as of late seem to be affecting much of the costs as well. YMMV. Tax is comparable to California as well. It's not as lucrative as USA, but public schooling is very strong in Toronto.

I'm curious about the variance as well.

I'd guess Seattle is quite a bit higher.

I thought about this recently but based on the big cut I would end up taking it makes it basically not worth it. Living in Texas I have no state income tax on top of a tax ecosystem which is being cut I make out more just staying.

An interesting life story and comparison of Canadian vs. US immigration. How many of those Canadian immigrants are former US immigrants, how many are engineers...? I don't see anything supporting the claim in the title.

Well, that means system works as intended. Good riddance. Hopefully our kids will get a chance to land a nice job without slaving for a bowl of rice.