A cooling compensation market is currently the prevailing wind in Canada’s tech talent market, finds this year’s Tech Sector Salary report.
The 2024 report, conducted by TAP Network and produced by Mercer, showed a median salary increase of less than 4%, a marked decline from 2023’s median increase of nearly 8%.
Voluntary turnover also declined to an average of less than 10%, in contrast to the previous year’s average of 17%.
The annual salary survey focuses on the Canadian tech sector, reporting on local and national salaries, total compensation, and policy data. Survey participants range from startups to large multinationals across an array of sub-sectors including A.I., clean-tech, manufacturing, and video games.
“Some of the seismic shifts we saw in the past couple of years seem to have settled,” posits Stephanie Hollingshead, who serves as Chief Executive Officer at TAP Network, a non-profit association for professionals in Canada’s tech sector, providing members with access to sector data, industry experts, and a peer community.
“For most subsectors, salary increases tracked much more closely to budgets this year, showing there was less reliance on off-cycle pay increases to address retention concerns, counteroffers, market adjustments, and internal equity,” the CEO noted.
Mechanical engineering and marketing roles topped this year’s list of jobs with the highest year-over-year increases in compensation.
“The larger salary increases we’re seeing in mechanical engineering roles are being driven by the clean-tech and hardware companies in our survey, which were more aggressive with increases this year,” said Hollingshead. “The federal government has been directing funding to clean-tech initiatives as it seeks to position Canada as a global leader in certain clean technologies.”
This wave may crash soon, however.
“We may see compensation for some of these jobs cool in 2025,” Hollingshead suggests, citing the fact that “Canadian fuel cell companies such as Ballard Power have recently undertaken restructuring and layoffs in response to global market challenges.”
Overall, companies are currently cautious with their spending, the report concludes.
“Coming out of a tumultuous year of both layoffs and large incumbent salary increases, many technology companies limited spending in 2024,” stated Hollingshead. “There is a spending caution which we haven’t seen in several years.”
Through programs and events, TAP Network fosters peer-to-peer connections that enable knowledge sharing. The association’s 1,000 members lead People and Culture practices at 250 tech companies spanning numerous sub-sectors.
