We had 5 developers move to Canada.

They are being paid far above market value because they wouldn't agree to drop down to Canadian salaries.

Further, new hiring has shifted to Canada (we didn't hire devs in Canada at all) and there is a new office now because 5 devs is quite a few, as opposed to the single remote Canadian we used to have.

I suspect salaries are only gonna rise. At least the devs who moved from within our company are being paid well above local market value.

I have come across companies that stopped hiring in the US and moving jobs to Canada.

Even a Silicon Valley company with good funding recently that I applied to, with a job posting in San Francisco, eventually hired in Canada.

That's true for FAANG companies as well. They have slowed down hiring in US since it has become really hard to bring that talent in the country. Instead they are slowly moving their work to other countries and doubling down on hiring there. Source - I and many people I know have been approached for jobs in Countries other than my country of residence.

The fact that you hold a permanent residency in Canada will help in demanding more salary in Canada because you are not at the mercy of your employer for your status unlike in the US where you are chained to your H1B sponsor.

And companies opening branches in Canada as well.

Don't canadian companies ask for "canadian experience required" on their job applications?

With the expection of healthcare and construction, Canadian work experience isn't particularly unique.

Ah ok. Bunch of my friends from canada in tech reported that as the main reason for not being able to land a tech job :).

I seen tons of these questions on quora and other sites too

https://www.quora.com/As-a-Canadian-employer-why-do-you-thin...

so there is def something going on.

As an American in Canada: yes.

In practice, it's mostly a resume-filter thing -- working for a year in a cafe part-time was enough to get me to an interview for a software Pro Services gig

(I had the degree and experience for it, too, but that cleared the "work in Canada" hurdle)

why were Canadians paid less to begin with? Is the tech industry not competitive there?

Wages are determined by the supply and demand of capital and labour.

The USA has an enormous amount of capital to invest and those companies want developers and will compete to get them, Europe, Canada etc. not so much.

I mean London has a cost of living comparable to many US Cities yet the wages are far lower.

Good for Indians. Regardless of how difficult it is to obtain visa, and even before Trump, many Indians and Chinese in the US need to wait > 10 years to become permanent residents, which limits their freedom quite a bit. I understand why many prefer the US. Currently salaries are higher than Canada and it's more diverse in terms of where they can live, esp in terms of climate, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

As a Canadian I'm not sure it is good for us give our housing situation.

Exactly. Wages have downward pressure, and housing has upward pressure. We could do without "the Indians" for a while.