Calculate Your Out of State Equivalent Salary

Ever consider moving out of the area? Perhaps you’re considering another job offer or your spouse wants to move “home” to be closer to family. Maybe you just wonder how much Google will have to pay you to defect from Microsoft. Regardless of what might drive your curiosity, using data provided by ACCRA, CNN Money put together an online salary ”equiva-lator,” so to speak, which estimates how far your current salary would go in another city to maintain your same lifestyle. More specifically, it tells you how much more or how much less groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, and healthcare would cost you in another area.

For example, a job change from Microsoft to Google (or a move from Seattle to San Jose) would cost you  22% more for groceries, 65% more for housing, 13% more for utilities, 5% more for transportation, and 1% more for healthcare. So you would  need to get yourself at least $127,000 Google-bucks to match your $100,000 Bill G-bucks.

Or, you could sniff around Dell instead, where a move from Seattle to Austin would cost you 19% less for groceries, 44% less for housing, 9% less for transportation, 19% less for healthcare, but 5% more for utilities. To match your $100,000 in Microsoft money, you would only need about $78,000 Dell-dollars to get you on the go.