You just got a job offer in a new city. The salary looks good — maybe even a raise from what you’re making now. But before you sign, there’s a question most people forget to ask: how much of that salary will you actually keep?
A $150,000 offer in Austin, Texas is not the same as a $150,000 offer in New York City. Not even close. After taxes, the NYC version puts $13,331 less in your pocket every year — over $1,100 per month — before you even factor in the higher cost of rent, food, and everything else.
If you’re weighing a job offer, a relocation, or a remote work move, here’s how to think about the tax side of the equation.
Same Salary, Very Different Paycheck
At $150K, someone in a no-income-tax state like Texas, Florida, Washington, or Tennessee takes home $113,791 per year. That’s their baseline — federal taxes and FICA only.
Now here’s what that same salary looks like after state and local taxes in other cities: Chicago drops to $106,366. Washington, DC drops to $103,818. San Francisco drops to $101,753. New York City drops to $100,460. Portland drops to $100,064.
Portland is the most surprising on this list. Oregon’s 9.9% top state bracket kicks in at just $125,000, and then Portland layers on two additional local taxes (Metro Supportive Housing Services and Preschool For All) that add another 2.5% on income above $125K.
The Offer Letter Math You Should Be Doing
Let’s say you’re currently earning $140K in Austin and you get an offer for $160K in San Francisco. Sounds like a $20K raise, right?
Not quite. At $140K in Austin, your take-home is roughly $106,484. At $160K in San Francisco, after California state income tax, SDI, and FICA, your take-home is about $107,776. Your real “raise” is closer to $1,292 per year — about $108 per month — before you account for San Francisco’s significantly higher cost of living.
This is why comparing gross salaries across cities is misleading. The only number that matters is what lands in your bank account.
Remote Work Changed Everything
The rise of remote and hybrid work means more people than ever have a genuine choice about where to live. If your employer lets you work from anywhere, your choice of state is now a financial decision worth tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Consider: a remote worker earning $175K who moves from Portland to Nashville keeps an extra $16,828 per year. Over a five-year stretch, that’s $84,140 in additional take-home pay. Invested at a 7% return over that period, it grows to roughly $97,000.
Even moving from a moderate-tax city like Chicago to a no-tax state saves $8,663 per year at $175K. That’s not nothing — it’s a fully funded Roth IRA every year with money left over.
What About Cost of Living?
Tax differences are only part of the picture. A dollar goes further in Nashville than it does in Miami, even though neither has a state income tax. Rent, groceries, transportation, and childcare costs vary enormously.
But here’s the thing: cost of living is harder to control. You can choose a cheaper apartment or cook more meals at home. You can’t choose to pay less in state income tax. The tax difference is a fixed, unavoidable gap that hits every paycheck regardless of your lifestyle choices.
That’s what makes it worth understanding before you make a move.
Three Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Offer
First, what’s my take-home pay in this city at this salary? Not the gross — the actual after-tax number. Second, what would I need to earn in this new city to match my current take-home pay? (Hint: if you’re moving from a no-tax state to NYC, you’d need roughly a 13-15% raise just to break even on taxes.) And third, does the employer offer any location-based pay adjustments, or is it a flat salary regardless of where I sit?
Run the Numbers Yourself
We built a free calculator that compares take-home pay across 13 major US cities using accurate 2026 tax brackets — federal, state, city, FICA, and local surcharges, all broken down line by line.
Try the Take-Home Pay Calculator →
Pick the two cities you’re comparing, plug in the salary, and see exactly how much you’d keep in each place. It takes five seconds and could save you from a decision you’d regret.
