How Status Quote calculates

Every number comes from a free public source, and each one is labeled with its source and year.

Cost-of-living-adjusted salary

We use the Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities (RPPs), which measure each metro's overall price level against the U.S. average (100). A salary in city A is worthsalary × RPP(B) ÷ RPP(A) in city B. This is BEA's own method and compares pre-tax pay; tax differences are shown separately. RPP year: 2024.

BEA also publishes price levels for four categories: housing (rents), goods, utilities, and other services. We show them as bars against the U.S. average of 100.

Job map

The job map uses BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). "Where it's common" shows jobs in that occupation per 1,000 jobs in the metro. "Where it pays best after cost of living" shows the median annual pay divided by the metro's price level and multiplied by 100, so it's stated at U.S.-average prices. Colors split the metros with data into five equal-sized groups. BLS counts jobs where people work, not where they live, and doesn't separate public and private employers at the metro level. Metros without a BLS estimate are shown as hollow dots.

Where people in a field live, within a metro

The "Where they live in a metro" view uses the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2020–2024), table C24010, which counts employed residents of each ZIP code area by occupation group. The survey uses 25 broad groups, so a job such as "Elementary School Teachers" is shown as its group ("Educational instruction, and library occupations"); jobs are matched to groups by their federal SOC codes. Each ZIP area is coloured by the share of its working residents in that group, split into five equal-sized groups within the metro. ZIP areas with fewer than 250 working residents aren't coloured because survey estimates there are too uncertain. ZIP areas are assigned to the metro whose county holds most of their land (Connecticut uses its 2022 planning regions).

The neighbourhood map is drawn by Status Quote from Census Bureau map files: ZIP code area shapes (2020 cartographic boundaries), state and county outlines (2024), and interstates and U.S. highways (TIGER/Line primary roads, 2024). Water is anything outside the state land shapes. Shapes are simplified so the map loads quickly on a phone, so edges are approximate. Town labels are the ZIP areas' post-office names, placed where most of that town's working residents live. No outside map service is used.

Take-home pay

Take-home = salary − federal income tax − Social Security and Medicare − state income tax. We assume a single filer taking the standard deduction ($16,100 for 2026), with no other income, credits or deductions. Social Security is 6.2% up to$184,500; Medicare is 1.45%, plus0.9% above $200,000.

State income tax is a simplified estimate using the Tax Foundation's 2026 brackets, standard deduction, personal exemption and flat personal credits. Phase-outs and special rules are ignored.City and county income taxes are not included (for example New York City, Maryland counties, and many Ohio cities).

Rent burden

Rent is HUD's Fair Market Rent for a 1-bedroom (fiscal year 2026). HUD sets it near the 40th percentile of local rents for standard-quality units, including utilities, so we call it "typical rent", not the median. Where HUD splits a metro into several rent areas, we use the one that contains the metro's main city. Rent burden = 12 × monthly rent ÷ annual take-home pay.

Federal (GS) pay

GS salaries come from OPM's 2026 pay tables. Each metro is assigned the locality pay area that covers most of its population, using OPM's county-by-county locality definitions and Census county populations. Metros outside any named area get the "Rest of U.S." rate. Connecticut is a special case: the Census now uses planning regions there while OPM still uses the old counties, so each Connecticut metro uses the old county that contains its main city.

The 0–100 score

• Purchasing power (50%): how much further the offer goes than your current pay after prices. 50 = even; 100 = 10% or more better; 0 = 10% or more worse.
• Rent burden (30%): 100 when rent is 25% of take-home pay or less, 0 at 50% or more, straight line in between.
• Pay vs. local median for the job (20%): 50 at the BLS median for the occupation in the offer city; 100 at 50% above; 0 at 50% below. If you don't pick an occupation, the other two parts are scaled up to fill 100%.

Labels: 70+ "Strong offer", 45–69 "Fair offer", under 45 "Weak offer". The headline ("Real raise", "This raise is actually a pay cut", and so on) comes from purchasing power alone; within ±2% is "Roughly even".

Which cities

The calculator covers every U.S. metropolitan statistical area with complete data from all sources. City comparison pages are built for the largest metros by Census population estimate (2025).

Maps

Maps are drawn by Status Quote from U.S. Census Bureau state boundary files (2024) and metro area locations (2025); no outside map service is used. Metro dots are colored by BEA price level: under 92, 92–98, 98–102, 102–108, and over 108 (U.S. average = 100). Alaska and Hawaii are shown as insets.

What's not included

Benefits, retirement contributions, bonuses, commuting, childcare, local taxes, and personal circumstances. Price parities describe an average household's basket; yours may differ.