Cost of Living Comparator
Compare two US cities and see the salary you would need to keep the same standard of living after a move — with the caveats on such indices.
Indexes are representative composite cost-of-living figures (US average = 100) drawn from published 2025-era survey data — directional, not exact, and housing drives most of the spread. Your personal basket (renting vs owning, kids, commute) can shift the answer meaningfully.
A 30% more expensive city needs more than a 30% raise
A cost-of-living index compares what things cost, and things are paid for out of take-home pay. A raise arrives as gross. Between the two sits a progressive tax, so matching a higher cost of living takes more than the index gap. On $80,000:
| Costs are | You need | A raise of | Extra over the index gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| +10% | $89,192 | +11.5% | 1.5 points |
| +20% | $98,384 | +23.0% | 3.0 points |
| +30% | $107,576 | +34.5% | 4.5 points |
| +50% | $126,183 | +57.7% | 7.7 points |
| +100% | $173,488 | +116.9% | 16.9 points |
The extra 4.5 points on a 30% move is the tax on the raise, and it grows with the gap. Doubling your costs takes a 116.9% raise, rather more than doubling your salary.
The control says it is the progression and nothing else. Run the same calculation with no tax and the two numbers match exactly — a 30% higher cost needs a 30% raise, a 100% higher cost needs 100%. Under a flat tax it would also vanish, because a constant fraction of a larger number is the same fraction.
And the penalty is not simply worse for high earners
This is the part I expected to be a clean line and it is not. The same 30% cost increase, at four salaries:
| Salary | Needs | Raise | Extra over the gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $66,086 | +32.2% | 2.2 points |
| $80,000 | $107,576 | +34.5% | 4.5 points |
| $120,000 | $160,720 | +33.9% | 3.9 points |
| $200,000 | $266,609 | +33.3% | 3.3 points |
Everybody pays something extra, but it peaks in the middle — at $80,000 rather than at the top. The penalty depends on how many bracket boundaries the raise crosses and how wide those brackets are, not on how much you earn, and the brackets are not evenly spaced.
The useful version of that: you cannot estimate this from your income alone. The answer depends on where your particular raise lands relative to the particular thresholds — which is exactly the sort of thing a calculator is for and intuition is not.
One caveat on the index itself, which is worth more than the arithmetic above: a composite figure averages housing, groceries, transport and everything else into one number, and your own mix is not the average. If you rent, the housing component is most of your answer; if you own outright, it is almost none of it. The index gap is a starting point for the question, not the answer to it.
How to use
- Pick the two cities.
- Enter your current salary.
- Read the equivalent salary needed.
- Research housing yourself — it dominates the answer.
Frequently asked questions
How are cost-of-living indices built?
From a basket of goods and services weighted by typical household spending — housing, groceries, transport, healthcare and utilities. The weights matter enormously, and different index providers weight differently, which is why two comparisons of the same cities can disagree.
Which category dominates the difference?
Housing, by a very wide margin. Groceries and utilities vary modestly between US cities while housing can differ several-fold, so almost any comparison is largely a housing comparison. Checking actual rents or prices for the kind of home you want is more informative than the index.
Does the index describe my situation?
Only approximately. The basket reflects an average household, and your spending is not average — a household with no car, or with young children, or renting rather than owning, diverges substantially. The further your pattern is from typical, the less the index tells you.
Does it account for state taxes?
Some indices do and some do not, and it matters — state income tax ranges from nothing to a substantial share of income, and property and sales taxes vary as much again. A comparison that ignores tax can point the wrong way entirely.
What does a comparison miss entirely?
Everything that is not priced: commute time, climate, distance from family, career opportunities, and how much you like the place. People routinely accept a worse financial position for those reasons and are right to, which is why the equivalent-salary figure is one input rather than an answer.
How current is the data?
It reflects a point in time, and housing markets in particular move quickly. Treat the comparison as a starting point and check current listings for the specific area you are considering — city-level averages hide enormous variation between neighbourhoods.
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