Methodology & Data

Last reviewed: October 12, 2026. Tax year modeled: 2026.

This page explains what happens to a number when you type it into one of our calculators. It lists every data source, how often we update it, and what the tools cannot do. If you want to check our work, everything you need is here.

Quick summary

Tax data

Federal income tax. We use the 2026 brackets and standard deductions from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32: $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $24,150 for heads of household. Tax runs through each bracket in turn. We do not use a single “effective rate” shortcut, because that overstates tax on lower incomes and understates it on higher ones.

Payroll tax (FICA). Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, as published by the Social Security Administration. Medicare is 1.45% with no cap, plus a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for joint filers. The retirement calculator does not apply payroll tax, because it does not apply to retirement income.

State income tax. Each state uses its own rules. Flat-tax states are modeled as flat. Graduated states run through their full bracket table, with the state standard deduction where one exists. Several states are cutting rates over several years, so each state table in our code is tagged with the tax year it comes from. Where a state had not yet published its 2026 figures, we use its latest published year. California is an example: it publishes indexed brackets late in the year.

Local income tax. Sixteen cities in our data charge income or wage tax on top of the state: New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Louisville, Birmingham, Denver and Portland. New York City tax uses its own brackets on state taxable income, and Baltimore’s 3.2% applies to Maryland taxable income. Denver charges a flat $5.75 a month occupational privilege tax. Portland adds the Multnomah County Preschool for All tax (1.5% above $125,000 single or $200,000 joint, plus 1.5% above $250,000 or $400,000), the Metro supportive housing tax (1% above the same first thresholds) and the $35 Arts Tax. The others are a flat rate on wages, using the resident rate.

States with no wage income tax. Of the 39 states we cover, six charge none: Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington and Alaska.

Cost of living data

We use two public data sets for costs. Both are the latest releases available on the review date above.

• Price levels: BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), 2024, released February 19, 2026. We use the all-items RPP for each city’s metro area (100 = US average). We also use BEA’s sub-indexes for goods, utilities and other services to scale groceries, transport, utilities, healthcare and childcare. Across our 78 cities, the all-items RPP runs from 89.2 (Tulsa) to 115.6 (San Francisco and Oakland).
• Rent: HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2026, for the county or metro FMR area that contains each city (by town in New England). We use the one-, two- and three-bedroom values.

Every city in our data falls inside a BEA metro area, so no city needed a state or nonmetro value. A few cities share a metro and so share a price level: Newark and Jersey City use the New York metro, Fort Lauderdale uses Miami, Fort Worth uses Dallas, Oakland uses San Francisco, and Tacoma uses Seattle. Their rents still come from their own HUD area where HUD lists one.

These are comparative numbers. They support a statement like “Denver at 105.8 costs about 6% more than the US average.” They do not say “a two-bedroom in your street costs exactly $X.” For that, use a rental listings site and a specific neighborhood. New to these scores? Read our guide to BEA regional price parities. The equivalent salary in the main calculator uses the ratio of the two cities’ all-items RPPs. BEA publishes the 2025 figures in December 2026, and we will update after that.

The household cost model

Costs are built up from your household, not applied as one flat multiplier. Housing varies far more between cities than groceries do, so each category is handled on its own:

• Housing is the city’s HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rent: one bedroom for one or two adults, two bedrooms with one or two children (or three or more adults), and three bedrooms for three or more children. It is then adjusted for your lifestyle setting. Buying is modeled at about 1.18 times the cost of renting, to cover property tax, insurance and upkeep.
• Groceries scale per adult and per child. Teenagers cost more than younger children. They are scaled by the BEA goods price level for the city.
• Transport assumes one main car or transit pass, plus a smaller amount for each extra adult, scaled by the BEA goods price level. The retirement calculator lowers this because there is no commute.
• Healthcare is a per-adult allowance for typical premiums and out-of-pocket costs, scaled by the BEA services price level. The retirement calculator raises it to reflect Medicare premiums, extra coverage and prescriptions.
• Utilities are a base amount per home, scaled by the BEA utilities price level, plus a little per person.
• Childcare is priced by age: about $1,400 a month under age two, $1,100 from two to five, $550 for school-age care, and $0 from thirteen. These are then scaled by the BEA services price level for the city.
• Dining and entertainment are optional and off by default, because they are choices, not the cost of living somewhere.

A lifestyle setting (budget, moderate or comfortable) scales the flexible parts of housing, food, transport and entertainment.

How each calculator uses this

• Salary vs Cost of Living, Job Offer and Remote Work calculators: run the full tax and cost model for both cities, then find the salary that leaves you the same amount in each.
• Disposable Income Calculator: runs the same model for one city.
• Family Cost of Living Calculator: adds children by age, so childcare, food and housing size change.
• Retirement Cost of Living Calculator: removes payroll tax, raises healthcare and lowers transport.
• Salary Guide by Profession: starts from the national median pay for 20 jobs, then shows what that pay is worth city by city.
• Salary Negotiation Letter Generator: puts the calculator’s numbers into an editable letter. Everything stays in your browser.

What we do not include

Student loans, credit card debt, car loans, alimony, child support and savings goals are left out. They are personal commitments, not the cost of a place, and adding them would make city comparisons meaningless. Subtract your own from the disposable income figure.

We also do not model stock grants, bonuses, employer 401(k) matching, itemized deductions, or tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit. Sales tax and property tax are not calculated as separate lines.

Known limitations

• The cost model describes a typical household. Real households are not typical. Rent control, a paid-off home, a long commute or fully paid health insurance can each change the answer by thousands of dollars a year.
• One price level and one Fair Market Rent per metro cannot show the difference between neighborhoods.
• BEA price levels are for 2024 and HUD rents are for FY2026. A city whose prices moved sharply since then may lag.
• Some state tables use the latest published tax year rather than 2026, as noted above.

How often we update

• Federal tax: each year when the IRS publishes new brackets, usually in October or November.
• Social Security wage base: each year when SSA announces it, usually in October.
• State and local tax: when states and cities publish new rates or pass tax changes.
• Cost of living data: reviewed when new regional price and rent data is released. BEA usually publishes new price parities each December (the 2024 data came out in February 2026), and HUD publishes new Fair Market Rents for each fiscal year starting October 1.
• Guides: each article shows its own published and updated date.

Corrections

If you believe a figure is wrong, email info@salaryvslifecalc.com. Please include the exact inputs you used. We check every report and fix confirmed errors. This page is not financial, tax or legal advice; see our disclaimer.