Toronto and Boston have topped a tech salary growth survey of 13 global cities, with the average pay in the GTA hitting $100,000 this year, a 9 per cent jump over 2018 but still far from the Silicon Valley average of $145,000 (U.S.), or roughly $192,000.

The 2019 State of Salaries report from San Francisco-based career marketplace Hired says average Toronto tech salaries are at the highest level in four years amid what the Information Technology Association of Canada calls a profound shortage of tech workers in a market increasingly driven by digital ventures.

“Rising salaries are a sign of a thriving economy, which is certainly the case in Toronto and Boston,” said Hired CEO Mehul Patel, who added that every technology hub — not just Toronto — is experiencing a shortage of qualified and experienced technical talent.

“Their startup communities are growing and more technology giants are opening satellite offices,” Patel said citing a report by the Bank of Montreal naming Toronto the fourth largest and fastest growing market for tech workers in North America.

But while tech talent can be hard to find, salaries for tech workers in Toronto remain below the U.S. average of $135,000 (U.S.) and the global average of $129,000 (U.S.), with the latter falling year over year thanks to the growth of secondary tech markets in cities including Boston, where the average tech salary rose 9 per cent to $127,000 (U.S.) in 2019.

The Hired survey shows that natural language processing engineers in Toronto who develop artificial intelligence for interactions between computers and human languages are paid the most, at an average of $112,000, followed by machine learning engineers at $108,000 and blockchain engineers at $107,000. Blockchain engineers develop technology that allows information to be distributed and shared publicly over the internet without being copied.

The survey released Thursday also shows that salaries for tech workers overall peak in their mid-40s at $149,000 (U.S.) but then plateau after 50 and as they enter their 60s. It said 60 per cent of tech talent plan to leave their current city within five years.

Fuelled by government funded start-up accelerators, welcoming immigration polices and a healthy venture capital market, Toronto was the world’s fastest-growing tech-jobs market in 2017 and the fourth-largest tech hub in North America, according to a CBRE Group study.

Separate research by TechToronto said the Toronto tech ecosystem accounted for 15 per cent of the city’s workforce in 2016. It said tech jobs grew by 14.6 per cent from 2010 to 2015.

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