Salary Equivalent Calculator

We start with your current take-home pay (after federal, state, and FICA in your current city). To keep the same real purchasing power in a different city, we scale that net income by the ratio of the two cities’ cost-of-living indices: if the target city’s COLI is 50% higher, you’d need about 50% more net income there to buy the same basket of goods and services. We then solve for the gross salary in the target city that, after that city’s state and federal taxes, yields the required net. The result is an approximation: we use a single COLI and state tax rate per city, and we don’t model local taxes, housing mix, or lifestyle. Use it to ballpark “what salary do I need in NYC to match 80k in Dallas?” and then read both city pages for detailed rent, tax, and cost data.