I know a CA who moved to US pretty soon after she got her CA in Canada. The starting salary for CA who has about 4 years public accounting experience will very likely make US$80K in US and then can move on to over US$100K after another couple of years. But of course it depends on your attitude to life: some people enjoy earning $50K in the government and having a good time, others may enjoy working extremely hard, earn a big salary and never have time to spend it.