Cost of Living Calculator: City Salary Equivalent
Use this cost of living calculator to find the equivalent salary you'd need in a new city to maintain your current lifestyle. Compare housing, taxes, and everyday costs city to city.
How this calculator works
The equivalent salary is calculated using a simple proportional index comparison:
Equivalent Salary = Current Salary × (Target Index ÷ Current Index)
The cost of living index represents the relative cost of consumer goods and services in a location compared to the US national average (index = 100). An index of 130 means a city is 30% more expensive than average; an index of 80 means 20% cheaper.
Common reference indexes (approximate, as of 2024):
- New York City: ~187 · San Francisco: ~177 · Los Angeles: ~163
- Chicago: ~107 · Dallas: ~96 · Phoenix: ~99
- Austin: ~121 · Nashville: ~107 · Charlotte: ~94
This calculator uses the overall composite index. For a more granular comparison, look at separate indexes for housing, groceries, and healthcare, which often vary significantly even within similar overall indexes.
Source: Cost of living index methodology based on Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) ACCRA data, used by bestplaces.net and numbeo.com. National price level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI.