For your own sake you need to do some homework and figure out what it costs you, on average, each month to pay the bills, make ends meet, and at least maintain your present standard of living - and translate that from Canadian money to US currency on an annualized basis.  You may never have to tell anyone what that annualized amount is, but YOU need to know what it is in order to be able to make an intelligent decision about any job offers that come your way.  Generally speaking, you should be looking at an anticipated salary range that's at least 10% to 15% more than you're earning now, again, converted to US dollars, in order to justify switching jobs and countries.  Once an offer is make, assuming it's one you'd otherwise be happy to accept, ask what's in the employer's benefit package.  Depending on the level of the job, my expectation would be that whatever's in the benefit package will be set by company policy and probably not open to negotiation.  If you do get a job offer, please feel free to come back here for advice on negotiating the salary offer.  But, just for the sake of discussion, let's say that you receive a salary offer that's 15% more than you're earning now, in converted dollars, and that the benefit package sounds good - take the job!  Never, never, never try to negotiate more just for the sake of negotiating.

Paul W. Barada

The Negotiation Expert