Compare the cost of living between two locations using cost indices. Enter your current salary and the cost of living index for both cities to see what salary you would need to maintain the same standard of living. Uses a baseline where 100 equals the national average.
Cost of living indices translate the question "is this raise actually a raise?" into a single comparable number. A move from Memphis to San Francisco at the same salary is a pay cut in purchasing-power terms — housing alone often eats the difference, and groceries, childcare, and services follow. A move in the other direction can mean meaningful lifestyle improvement on a smaller paycheck.
Most cost-of-living indices use a baseline of 100, anchored to either the national U.S. average or to a reference city. A city with an index of 130 is roughly 30% more expensive than the baseline for the same standard of living; an index of 85 is 15% cheaper. The components vary by source — housing typically gets the heaviest weight (30–40%), with food, transportation, healthcare, and utilities making up the rest — but the methodology is mostly comparable across major sources (BEA Regional Price Parities, C2ER, BestPlaces, NerdWallet).
This calculator does the simple but important math: your current salary, scaled by the ratio of the two cities' indices, gives the equivalent salary at the new location. The number is approximate — your personal spending pattern may differ from the index basket — but it's the right starting point for any relocation negotiation or city-vs-city comparison.
Current salary: $130,000 in Austin (index ≈ 100) Moving to San Francisco (index ≈ 180) Equivalent salary: 130,000 × (180 / 100) = $234,000 The Austin salary needs to grow by $104,000 — an 80% raise — just to maintain the same standard of living. A typical "tech relocation premium" of $25,000–$50,000 doesn't close that gap. The move is often net-positive only if SF compensation is meaningfully higher (equity-loaded offers, senior level bump).
Current salary: $120,000 in Manhattan (index ≈ 190) Moving to Charlotte (index ≈ 95) Equivalent salary: 120,000 × (95 / 190) = $60,000 If your employer lets you keep the $120,000 salary remotely, your real income roughly doubles in purchasing-power terms. This is exactly the math driving COVID-era moves out of high-cost metros to mid-cost cities — same nominal pay, dramatically more discretionary income. Watch for "geographic pay adjustments" some employers apply when you change tax/work locations.
Current annual spending: $80,000 in Boston (index ≈ 145) Considering Sarasota, FL (index ≈ 110) Equivalent spending: 80,000 × (110 / 145) = $60,690 The same lifestyle costs about $19,300/year less in Sarasota — a meaningful retirement boost. Add no state income tax in Florida (Massachusetts is 5%) and the net positive grows. Run this comparison early in retirement planning; small differences in annual spending compound across a 25–30 year retirement.
Use this calculator before any job offer in a new city, before any remote work move, when comparing retirement destinations, or when evaluating a relocation package. It transforms the abstract "how expensive is San Francisco?" into a specific dollar number that maps to your actual income.
For negotiating with a new employer, the equivalent-salary figure is the floor — accepting less than that is a real pay cut. The ceiling depends on what the company will actually pay; the gap between the floor and the ceiling is the negotiation. Bring the math to the conversation.
Pair it with the pay-raise calculator (to see how a nominal raise compares to inflation) and the budget calculator (to map your spending categories against the new city's component costs). For a deeper comparison, look at the components of the index separately — housing alone often drives 50–70% of the gap between any two cities, so your housing situation (renter, owner, moving up or down in size) dominates the result.
It is not a precision tool. Cost-of-living indices average across many households and many spending patterns; your personal index may be quite different. A young single in shared housing has very different cost exposure than a family with three kids in private school. Use the index as a planning estimate, not as a contract.
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National average = 100
National average = 100
Equivalent Salary Needed
$97,500
Salary Difference
+$22,500
Cost Difference
+30.0%
Cost Ratio
1.30x