Relocation Cost of Living & Salary Adjustment Calculator
See the salary a new city needs to match your current standard of living.
Provide relative index values (100 = National Average) for your current city.
Provide relative index values (100 = National Average) for your destination city.
Adjust budget sliders to allocate relative weights of your spending. The system calculates real percentages dynamically.
| Category | Current City | Destination City | Net Difference |
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A job offer in a new city can look like a raise on paper and still leave you worse off once rent and taxes are accounted for. This calculator compares your current city with a destination across housing, groceries, transport, utilities, healthcare, and other spending, weighted by how you actually budget. It then works out the salary you'd need to hold your standard of living steady, and checks a proposed offer against it — including how long a move would take to pay back. It runs in your browser.
How the equivalent salary is calculated
Each city carries a set of cost indices per category. Your spending weights normalise to 100% and produce a single weighted index for each location. The equivalent salary then adjusts your current pay for both the cost difference and the change in state income tax:
Equivalent = Current × [(1 − Tax₁) ÷ (1 − Tax₂)] × (Index₂ ÷ Index₁)
If a proposed salary beats that equivalent, the tool reports a purchasing-power gain; if it falls short, a cut. When you add moving costs, it estimates the payback period from the monthly after-tax gain. A per-category budget table shows where the money actually shifts — usually housing does most of the work.
About the built-in city data
The tool ships with approximate cost-of-living indices and state tax rates for a set of major US cities, expressed relative to a national average of 100. These are illustrative reference figures for comparison, not live market data, and real prices — especially rent — move constantly and vary by neighbourhood. If your city isn't listed, or you have better local numbers, choose the custom option and enter your own indices and tax rate. Treat the output as a well-structured estimate to inform a relocation decision, not a precise forecast of your budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the city cost figures come from?
They are approximate reference indices built into the tool, relative to a national average of 100, alongside representative state tax rates. They're for comparison only, not live data — use the custom option to enter your own numbers for a more precise result.
Why does adjusting the spending weights change the answer?
Because cities differ more in some categories than others. If housing dominates your budget, a city with expensive rent hits you harder, so weighting housing higher raises the equivalent salary you'd need there.
What does the equivalent salary actually mean?
It's the gross pay in the destination city that would leave you with roughly the same standard of living you have now, after adjusting for cost of living and the difference in state income tax.
Is my salary information saved?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.