Compare Salary by City 2026: Side-by-Side Take-Home + Budget

Take-home includes gross salary minus federal income tax (using 2026 IRS brackets and standard deduction), state income tax (using 2026 state tax tables for all covered cities), city income tax where applicable (New York City approximately 3.1-3.9%, Philadelphia approximately 3.79%), and FICA (Social Security 6.2% up to $184,500, Medicare 1.45%). It does not include pre-tax deductions like 401k, HSA, or health insurance premiums. Adding pre-tax deductions would increase your take-home.

This site uses Numbeo's cost-of-living index (Q1 2026) with New York City set at 100 as the baseline. The index weights rent, groceries, utilities, and local purchasing power. A city with index 80 costs roughly 20% less than New York City in total. The index is crowdsourced and updated frequently; it is most reliable for major metros.

On a $100,000 salary, moving from New York (state + city tax combined roughly $10,000-11,000) to Texas (no state tax, $0) nets approximately $10,000 more per year in take-home. At $150,000, the advantage grows to roughly $14,000-15,000 per year. These figures offset moving costs within 1-2 years. The caveat: no-income-tax states often raise revenue through higher property taxes, sales taxes, and local fees. See noincometaxstates.com for the full state-by-state comparison.

The four-city visual on the homepage shows NYC, SF, Austin, and Miami simultaneously. For custom multi-city comparison, use the salary-by-city index page which shows take-home across all 25 metros at any selected gross. The dynamic /compare tool on this page handles any two-city pair from the 25 supported metros.

The calculator supports the 25 largest US metros by population with sufficient state tax detail. For unlisted cities in covered states (for example, Sacramento in California or Charlotte in North Carolina), the state tax is the same; only the city income tax and COL index differ. Use the state's covered city as a proxy for the tax calculation, then consult Numbeo for the unlisted city's COL index.