The US Cities where
Salaries Go
Furthest
In 2021

Salaries might be higher in Silicon Valley and New York City, but the price you’ll pay for living in those cities continues to skyrocket. So are residents really getting the best deal when the cost of living is factored in? We adjusted average salaries across the U.S. by factoring in the cost of living, revealing the cities where your wages could go the furthest.

 

To give you a deeper look, you can see the overall results or choose to filter by sector.

Adjusted   salary
Unadjusted   salary
# CITY SALARY
1 Alexandria,  VA
$83,809
$71,572
2 Kokomo,  IN
$76,862
$65,640
3 Santa Fe,  NM
$74,567
$72,330
4 Columbus,  GA
$73,033
$64,708
5 Huntsville,  AL
$71,194
$63,363
6 Durham-Chapel Hill,  NC
$70,725
$67,048
7 St. Louis,  MO
$69,833
$62,920
8 Columbus,  IN
$69,625
$61,758
9 Fond du Lac,  WI
$69,624
$61,130
10 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia,  NC
$69,265
$65,386
11 Rochester,  MN
$68,746
$63,865
12 Elkhart-Goshen,  IN
$68,510
$60,837
13 Birmingham-Hoover,  AL
$67,418
$59,530
14 Morgantown,  WV
$67,046
$60,207
15 Raleigh-Cary,  NC
$66,788
$64,183
16 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta,  GA
$66,758
$65,356
17 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington,  TX
$66,728
$67,529
18 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson,  IN
$66,543
$60,621
19 Bloomington,  IL
$66,316
$60,746
20 Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown,  CT
$66,214
$67,869

info

We pulled lists of metropolitan areas with cost of living data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, including regional price parity values by metro. Then we pulled city salary data per sector from Payscale and adjusted salaries according to the cost of living data.