What's your salary really worth?
Enter a salary and two metros to see what you'd actually keep — take-home pay after federal, FICA, and state income tax, then rebased to local prices so the two cities compare fairly.
Earning $100,000 in both, Abilene leaves you about $4,989/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Estimate for a single filer taking the standard deduction — 2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax. Excludes local taxes, credits, and other deductions, and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the cost-of-living index.
How this works
Two things decide what a salary is really worth: how much the government takes, and how much your city charges. We estimate take-home pay — 2025 federal income-tax brackets, Social Security and Medicare (FICA), and your state income tax — then rebase it to local prices using the BEA Regional Price Parities(the official measure of how expensive a metro is, U.S. = 100). That rebased number is the “real value” figure.
Why it matters: a no-income-tax state can hand you several percent more of your salary, while a high cost of living quietly takes it back — and only looking at both together shows where you actually come out ahead. The estimate assumes a single filer taking the standard deduction; it isn't tax advice, and your own credits, deductions, and filing status will move the numbers.
See the exact sources and weights on our methodology page. Every city's figures are on its profile.