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Salary comparison by city

What you'd need to earn in another US city to keep the same standard of living, from the government's own price index, and what your job actually pays there. $75,000 in New York, for example, buys what $68,688 buys in Dallas-Fort Worth. Covers all 387 metro areas and the rural parts of every state.

By Dominic Roworth · Prices: BEA, 2024 · Pay: BLS, May 2025

Areas are the ones the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay for: every metro area, and a few rural areas in each state. Start typing a city's name to find it.

The same standard of living in Dallas

$68,688

$75,000 x 103.1 / 112.6: prices are 8.4% lower in Dallas

Prices vs where you liveDifference

Before tax. State income tax differs a lot (Texas and Florida have none; California's top rate is 13.3%), so take-home can move more than this. Housing here means rents.

How the comparison works

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) measures how expensive every metro area is compared with the national average, which it sets at 100. These Regional Price Parities cover everything a household buys: goods, rents, utilities and other services. To carry a salary from one city to another with the same buying power:

Salary needed = your salary x price index of the new city / price index of your city

$75,000 in Houston (98.6) needs $87,915 in San Francisco (115.6). Rural areas use BEA's figure for the nonmetropolitan part of their state.

If you pick your job, the tool also shows what it pays in both places, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025), the official survey of pay by job and area. That answers the question that matters: would you earn enough more there to cover the higher prices?

The most expensive and cheapest metro areas

Most expensivePricesRents
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 115.6 194.7
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 114.2 155.6
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 113.6 170.4
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ 112.6 148.6
Napa, CA 112.6 197.4
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA 111.9 179.3
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 111.1 151.3
Urban Honolulu, HI 111.0 135.5
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 110.5 171.1
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 110.4 211.9
CheapestPricesRents
Monroe, LA 83.6 42.8
Eagle Pass, TX 83.8 53.7
Dothan, AL 83.8 46.9
Texarkana, TX-AR 84.0 49.9
Enid, OK 84.3 51.4
Hammond, LA 84.5 48.2
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 84.8 52.3
Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 84.8 47.7
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA 85.1 51.3
Wildwood-The Villages, FL 85.4 51.7

BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. United States = 100.

Where pay goes furthest: the 20 biggest metro areas

The typical (median) pay for all jobs in each of the 20 metro areas with the most workers, and the same pay valued at national-average prices. Ranked by what the pay is really worth.

Metro areaMedian pay, all jobsPricesWorth at US prices
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $72,610 111.1 $65,336
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV $71,060 108.9 $65,262
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $74,260 115.6 $64,232
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH $66,620 108.3 $61,534
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO $62,320 105.8 $58,914
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI $59,320 104.8 $56,591
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ $61,430 112.6 $54,574
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD $54,310 102.6 $52,957
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN $54,720 103.6 $52,821
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA $58,690 111.9 $52,455
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI $52,080 100.3 $51,925
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA $51,170 100.1 $51,140
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX $49,410 98.6 $50,097
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX $51,440 103.1 $49,898
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ $51,380 103.3 $49,731
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA $55,850 113.6 $49,178
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL $48,940 100.9 $48,508
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL $46,630 101.4 $45,978
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA $48,400 106.4 $45,471
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL $48,640 114.2 $42,609

Pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025, all occupations. Prices: BEA, 2024.

Limits

  • Price indexes are averages for a whole metro area. Rents in a city centre can be far above the area's average.
  • Housing in BEA's index is rents. If you are buying, house prices and mortgage rates matter more.
  • Prices are for 2024 (BEA publishes a year in arrears) and pay is from May 2025.
  • The comparison is before tax. State and local income taxes, and sales taxes, differ by state.
  • BLS doesn't publish every job in every area; where it doesn't, the tool says so.

Questions

How do you compare salaries between cities?

Scale the salary by the difference in prices. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities: an index of how expensive each metro area is against the national average of 100. Multiply your salary by the new city's index and divide by your current city's: $75,000 in New York (112.6) is worth $68,688 in Dallas-Fort Worth (103.1).

Which US city is the most expensive to live in?

By BEA's 2024 figures, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has the highest prices of any metro area, 15.6% above the national average, followed by Miami and Los Angeles. The cheapest is Monroe, LA, 16.4% below it.

Why does housing make such a difference?

Goods cost much the same everywhere (BEA's goods index runs only from 94 to 112), but rents vary enormously: from 42 in Johnstown to 212 in San Jose. Most of the gap between two cities is rent.

Does a higher salary in an expensive city leave you better off?

Often, but not always. Pay is higher where prices are higher, but not always by enough. Of the 20 biggest metro areas, Seattle has the highest typical pay after prices; Miami has the lowest, even though its pay in dollars is above the national median. Pick your job in the calculator to see the answer for your own work.

Sources

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