Comparing a CAD Offer to a USD Offer, Properly

~8 min read·Updated August 2026

Calculator:Offer & Relocation Comparator: run your own two offers.

Short answer: don't compare gross salaries. A $180,000 CAD offer and a $230,000 USD offer aren't 1.28x apart just because the numbers say so: by the time payroll tax, your actual income-tax rate, the exchange rate, and cost of living are accounted for, the real gap is usually much smaller than the headline numbers suggest, and sometimes it flips entirely.

Why the raw numbers mislead you

Four things separate a gross salary from what it's actually worth to you, and a straight salary comparison skips all four:

Payroll tax. CPP and EI come off a Canadian paycheque before you see it; Social Security and Medicare come off a US one. These aren't optional and aren't the same rate.
Income tax. Federal plus provincial (Canada) or federal plus state (US), and these genuinely differ by jurisdiction. Ontario and California are nothing alike; Alberta and Washington are nothing alike either, in the opposite direction.
The exchange rate. A CAD salary and a USD salary aren't directly comparable numbers until one is converted into the other.
Cost of living. $230,000 in Austin and $230,000 in the Bay Area buy very different lives. None of the first three points matter if you don't also adjust for this.

What's computed for you

CPP/EI and Social Security/Medicare are federal-only, single-formula programs: the same rate applies no matter which province or state you're in. That makes them cheap to compute exactly, so this calculator does: real 2026 CPP, CPP2, EI, Social Security, and Medicare math, not an estimate.

Provincial and state income tax used to be a different problem: genuinely different brackets in 13 Canadian jurisdictions and 50 US states, several of which (Alberta has a flat provincial rate; Washington, Texas, Florida, and others have no state income tax at all) don't even follow the "graduated brackets" shape the others do. All 63 are now modeled directly: pick your province or state and the calculator runs your actual salary through that jurisdiction's real 2026 brackets, federal and provincial/state, net of the basic personal amount (Canada) or standard deduction (US federal). Quebec's 16.5% federal tax abatement is included too; see Methodology & Sources for the full citation list and what's deliberately left out (surtaxes, non-BPA credits, local/city income tax).

The exact numbers behind "real 2026 math"

Specifically, for 2026:

CPP: 5.95% on pensionable earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the $74,600 first ceiling (YMPE); plus CPP2, an additional 4% on earnings between $74,600 and the $85,000 second ceiling (YAMPE).
EI: 1.63% of insurable earnings, up to $68,900 in maximum insurable earnings.
Social Security: 6.2%, up to a $184,500 wage base.
Medicare: 1.45%, uncapped, plus an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages above $200,000 (single) / $250,000 (married filing jointly), a fixed statutory threshold that doesn't rise with inflation the way the others do.

These are federal, single-formula programs, so they're the same for everyone at a given income regardless of province or state, which is exactly why the calculator can compute them for you instead of asking you to enter a rate.

Worked example

A $130,000 CAD offer (Ontario) vs. a $170,000 USD offer (Washington, no state income tax), at a 1 CAD = 0.73 USD exchange rate and a 15% cost-of-living premium for the US city.

Canadian offer: $130,000 gross, minus $5,770 in CPP/CPP2/EI, minus $29,557 in federal + Ontario income tax (computed from real 2026 brackets, net of the basic personal amount at both levels and the CPP/EI credit, a combined 37.2% marginal rate at this income) = $94,674 net CAD ≈ $69,112 USD at the stated exchange rate.

US offer: $170,000 gross, minus $13,005 in FICA/Medicare, minus $29,534 in federal income tax (Washington has no state income tax; FICA isn't deductible against income tax, and this is a 24% federal marginal rate at this income) = $127,461 net USD. Adjusted for the US city costing 15% more to live in, that's $110,836 in comparable terms: the US offer is ahead by about $41,724/year, a lot closer than "$170k vs $130k" made it look, but still a real advantage.

The breakeven number is the useful one

Rather than just "offer A is worth $X more," the calculator also solves for the USD salary that would exactly match the Canadian offer, holding the US state and cost-of-living adjustment fixed. In the example above, that number is $100,425, meaning the US offer could drop by about $70,000 and still match the Canadian one. If the Canadian offer is ahead instead, the same number reads as a target: "the US side would need to offer at least this much." Either way, it's a single number worth anchoring a negotiation to.

Common mistakes

⚠️Comparing gross salaries directly

The single most common mistake, and the one that makes US offers look more dramatically better (or worse) than they actually are. Payroll tax alone typically eats 6-10% more off a US paycheque than a Canadian one at income levels above the CPP/EI ceilings, before income tax is even considered.

ℹ️Ignoring cost of living because "the salary is so much higher"

A bigger number in a more expensive city can easily be a real pay cut. Get an actual cost-of-living comparison for your specific city pair rather than guessing. The adjustment moves the final number more than most people expect.

📋Forgetting employer retirement matching

A 401(k) or RRSP match is real compensation this calculator doesn't include: it compares take-home cash only. If one offer has a materially better match, factor that in separately.

Run your own two offers through the Offer & Relocation Comparator to see the real gap in dollar terms, or check the CoastFIRE Calculator to see how either offer changes your retirement timeline. If you're accepting the US offer, Canada's departure tax applies the moment you leave (see how it works), and the Norbert's Gambit & FX Spread Calculator is worth checking before you convert a signing bonus or moving funds to USD.