play & work - Canada Vs Britain

There has been recent discussion in the news about Canada, Australia and other countries trying to reverse the so-called "brain drain" by trying to get ex-pats to come home. I have no idea if the brain drain is real; but there are lots of ex-pats who don't really want to come home for economic and lifestyle reasons.

Let's start with personal reasons: annual employee leave in Canada vs. annual employee leave in the UK (where I currently live):

Canadian holidays for 2005: 11*
Minimum leave by law, given to an employee in a Canadian company: 10 days
My personal experience is that Canadian employees get 10 days.

total: 22 days
* includes the average provincial holiday of 1 day

British holidays for 2005: 11
Minimum leave by law, given to an employee in a British company: 20 days
My personal experience is that British employees get 25 days.

total: 36 days

By moving to the UK in 2001, I got 64% more annual leave than the job I left behind in Canada.

A 2004 poll by Monster notes "75% of Brits said that they took 21 days or more holidays over the year when only 21% of Canadians and 13% of Americans received the same."

Now let's talk about economic reasons:

Average Canadian salary for a software engineer living in Toronto: $60,000 CDN

Average UK salary for a software engineer living in London, UK: $96,000 CDN (£45,000)

2005 After Tax income for the software engineer in Canada:
That $60,000 becomes $46,000 CDN

2005 After Tax income for the software engineer in the UK:
That £45,000 becomes £31,690 - or $66,549 CDN


Now of course the cost of living is higher in London than Toronto, probably at least 50% more, so the extra income made in the UK doesn't account for much.

But the 64% extra days of leave certainly is real enough. These numbers are of course really basic - and can't take into account quality of life, personal desires or ambitions; but what it tells me as an ex-pat Canadian; is that there is real reason and benefit of working outside of Canada.

To be honest, having more annual leave is worth more to me, than having more money. After all, there isn't that much difference in what a professional engineer might save in either country; but the extra holiday has tangible benefits: less stress and more fun, and isn't life meant to be more than just work?