33 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 295 2018 those in US libraries, and uniformly so across all income ranges. At the high-income end, for example, 39% of Canadian ARL professionals earned adjusted salaries of $100,000 or more, compared to just 14% of those in the US. The discrepancy is equally stark at the low-income end of the spectrum. In the US, 28% of ARL professionals had salaries below $60,000, compared to just 7% of Canadian professionals. Comparing the salaries of individuals with either zero or one year of professional experience gives further insight into the Canadian salary advantage. Fully 81% of those new professionals in Canadian libraries earned $60,000 and over, double the 40% of their colleagues in the US. Have Canadian ARL salaries always been higher than US ARL salaries? I have salary cohort data for the 2005, 2010, and 2015 data sets. (See Table 1.) Curiously, the 2005 data shows virtually no disparity between US and Canadian ARL professionals. The disparity sets in by the 2010 data, however, which looks very similar to the 2015 data. 2005 2010 2015 Under $60,000 $100,000 and up Under $60,000 $100,000 and up Under $60,000 $100,000 and up Canada 57% 2% 7% 39% 7% 39% US 56% 6% 39% 10% 28% 14% Table 1: Percentage of ARL Professionals Earning Less Than $60,000 and Earning $100,000 or More, by Country, in 2005, 2010, 2015 Canada has a higher percentage of new hires (10% of the population of ARL professionals in Canada have zero to one year of experience in their current institution compared to 7% for the US) and also of new professionals (6% of the population compared to 4% for the US). Better pay and more hiring are factors that bode well for the future of Advice to salary- conscious research library professionals with a tolerance for cold weather: move to Canada, early and often.
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