Comparing Cost of Living - Canada vs UK

I have spent £28,000 on my education and when i qualify the average for my position in the uk is £25k - £35 k
(the same job I found in quebec paying C$80k)

Don't count on getting an $80K job right out of school. That is completely unrealistic. They may have a job posted, but that doesn't mean they will hire a new graduate.
There are tons of people here fighting for jobs.
I have been doing programming for 20 years and I work in Waterloo, which is the center of high tech in Canada. And even with all my experience, I'm lucky to get 80K.

There are enough people here that think that they can get an $80K job right out of school. Sorry....doesn't work that way!! Starting salaries are typically low because you're the "low man on the totem pole" but if you prove yourself, you can usually negotiate up easily enough. Just as long as you don't over-do it.

£25K-£35K as an average....sounds like the industry that I am in. It sucks that the pay is low however there are usually other "bonuses" for such low incomes (e.g. as soon as I started with my company, I had benefits and vacation. You normally have to work a minimum of 3 months before you are entitled to company health benefits and you don't normally get ANY [paid] vacation time until you've worked for the company for a year here. On top of that, I get technically 5 weeks vacation/year - 3 actual weeks, 1 week off at Christmas and "special days" built onto long weekends which typically averages out to 5 weeks. That's pretty well unheard of here unless you've been working for quite a while). Depending on where you are at in life will depend on whether or not you can live on that income.

I'm a Plumber in London, I expect to earn no more than £25,500 per year. It's around £370 after taxes per week.

So £1603 per Calendar month.

Cost of living is £1500 per Calendar month in London (2 bed flat)

To buy a house, minimum deposit of £30,000 - add another £10,000 for legal stuff. So my £100 per month will take a while to build to the required mortgage deposit.

I wanna move to Canada

The rumour here is Canadian Plumbers earn $46,000 and have less cost of living and get a bigger house for their money???

This thread has been a very interesting read so far and I'm curious what members here would say for the situation I'm considering here.

I'm an engineer working in SK right now and I'm considering moving my family to the UK (not London in all likelihood) primarily for the cultural and travel possibilities being based out of England can provide. For my experience and job skills it looks like (based on the dozens of postings I've looked at) I can expect a salary between 45 - 55k there.

The question becomes, would a salary in that range support a family (2 young children) and leave sufficient remainder to be able to take proper advantage of our location?

This assumes my wife would be unable to get work, which she should be able to get although it would more than likely be in the 20-25k range, so I'm wondering if it's even possible on a single income.

Any thoughts, comments, or questions are welcome and thanks all for the interesting contrasting views thus far.

Regards

I think it would really depend on where you are planning to locate. It's hard to even estimate costs if you don't really have an idea in mind. The cost of living outside of London drops significantly.

http://www.listentotaxman.com/

The above link is a wonderful way to determine what your salary will be after taxes.