Cost of Living Salary Calculator
Moving to a new city? Find the salary you need in your destination to match your current lifestyle and purchasing power.
How to use this cost of living salary calculator
- 1Enter your current annual salary.
- 2Enter your current city's cost-of-living index using 100 as the US average baseline.
- 3Enter the new city's cost-of-living index. Find accurate indices at BestPlaces.net, Numbeo, or NerdWallet.
- 4The calculator shows the equivalent salary needed in the new city to maintain identical purchasing power.
- 5Remember to also compare state income taxes — moving from California to Texas saves you roughly 6–9% in state income tax on top of any cost-of-living difference.
How it's calculated
Equivalent salary = Current salary × (New city index ÷ Current city index).
About the Cost of Living Salary Calculator
The rise of remote work has made cost-of-living salary calculations more relevant than ever. When your employer's location no longer determines where you live, understanding the purchasing power of your salary across different cities becomes a powerful tool for financial planning.
The standard example: a $90,000 salary in San Francisco (CoL index ~175) has roughly the same purchasing power as a $51,000 salary in Dallas (CoL index ~95). That is how dramatically housing costs and overall city expenses can affect your real standard of living. A highly paid tech worker in San Francisco earning $180,000 may have a lower monthly discretionary income after housing, taxes, and basic expenses than a moderately paid professional in Raleigh earning $110,000.
For those evaluating remote job opportunities from companies in different cities, the dynamics can work in your favor or against you. A job offer from a San Francisco company at $120,000 is generous by Midwest standards. A job offer from a Midwest company at $80,000 may still provide excellent purchasing power in that market while feeling modest by coastal standards.
Beyond raw numbers, relocation decisions involve quality-of-life factors that are harder to quantify: proximity to family, climate preferences, cultural amenities, outdoor recreation access, school quality, and community connections. Financial analysis is an essential input to relocation decisions but rarely the only one.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find reliable cost-of-living index numbers?
Several free sources publish city-level indices: BestPlaces.net uses a composite index where 100 = US average. Numbeo is community-sourced and covers international cities. NerdWallet's cost of living calculator lets you compare two specific cities with detailed category breakdowns (housing, groceries, transportation, healthcare). The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) publishes quarterly state-level composite cost of living data. For the most accurate comparison, look at the housing component specifically — it drives 30–40% of the overall index difference between cities.
What does a cost-of-living index of 120 mean?
An index of 120 means that city is 20% more expensive than the US average (index = 100) across all major expense categories. To maintain the same standard of living you have in a city with index 100, you would need 20% more income in the index-120 city. Conversely, an index of 80 means the city is 20% cheaper than average, and your current salary would go 25% further there in terms of what you can buy.
Does this calculator account for state income taxes?
No — this is a pure cost-of-living comparison based on the price of goods, services, and housing. State income tax differences are separate and can be significant. Moving from California (effective state rate of roughly 6–9% for middle incomes) to Texas (0% state income tax) can add $4,000–$8,000 per year in take-home pay depending on your salary, in addition to any cost-of-living difference. For a complete relocation financial analysis, use this calculator for cost of living and then run your salary through the appropriate state paycheck calculators.
Should I accept a remote job at my current city's salary if I move somewhere cheaper?
From a financial standpoint, keeping your current salary while moving to a lower cost-of-living city is one of the most powerful financial moves available to remote workers. Moving from San Francisco (index ~175) to Austin (index ~117) while keeping the same salary is equivalent to a 49% salary increase in terms of purchasing power. However, some employers now apply 'geographic pay adjustments' for remote workers who relocate to lower-cost areas, reducing salary to match local market rates. Understand your employer's remote work and relocation policies before accepting.
What are the biggest cost differences between cities?
Housing is overwhelmingly the largest driver of cost-of-living differences between cities, typically accounting for 30–40% of the total index difference. A comparable 2-bedroom apartment in San Francisco can cost $3,500/month vs. $1,200 in Dallas — a $27,600 annual difference. After housing, the next biggest categories are transportation (including car costs and public transit), childcare (varies enormously by city and subsidy availability), healthcare (relatively stable nationally but varies by insurance market), and groceries (typically 10–20% variation between cities).