A bigger number in a bigger city is often a pay cut. Compare what is left after rent and tax, not what is written in the offer.
Indices are approximate and indicative only — override them with your own research. Tax uses 2026 federal brackets from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
Salary you need to break even
$0
Real change
0%
Simple COL equivalent
$0
Change in tax paid
$0
| Line item | Now | After the move |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $0 | $0 |
| Federal income tax | −$0 | −$0 |
| State income tax | −$0 | −$0 |
| FICA | −$0 | −$0 |
| Take-home pay | $0 | $0 |
| Cost of living index | 100 | 100 |
| Spending power | $0 | $0 |
Multiply by the ratio of the two indices. If you earn $100,000 where the index is 100 and move somewhere indexed at 130, the same standard of living costs roughly $130,000. Tax then shifts the answer again, so the cleanest method is to compare take-home pay divided by the local index rather than comparing gross salaries.
Often not. Housing drives most of the difference and does not scale linearly with income: a 30% higher salary where rent is 80% higher leaves you worse off. State and local income tax can remove another several percent. What shows the real answer is take-home pay measured against local costs, not the gross figure.
Indicative, not precise. Published indices use different baskets of goods and different base cities and will not match your actual spending. Someone who rents and never drives experiences a very different difference from a homeowner with two cars. Treat an index as a starting point and override it with your own research on rent, transport and childcare.
Yes. The gap between a no-income-tax state and a high-tax state can be worth several thousand dollars a year on a median salary, and some cities add a local tax on top. Because it applies to the whole salary it is often a larger swing than expected, and it stacks on top of the cost difference.