When it comes to setting down roots, buying a house, and choosing where to spend some of the most formative years of your life, a new analysis shows the smaller cities are where it’s at.
Job posting website Indeed recently put together new rankings of the cities with the highest salaries adjusted for cost of living. They used salary data from Indeed’s job postings and then compared it to cost of living data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Indeed specifically looked at the 185 U.S. metros with at least 250,000 people.
While major cities may have all the glitz and glamour, the lack of affordability wipes out many compensation gains. What Indeed found is that you’re better off living in a city like Visalia or Modesto in terms of livability.
“Before adjusting for cost of living, America’s highest salaries are in San Jose, San Francisco, and several other California metros,” says Indeed CEO Jed Kolko.
“But these high-salary places like the Bay Area tend to have the country’s highest costs of living — especially for housing, but for other goods and services too. In these high-salary places, it’s money in, money out.”
These were the metros with the highest adjusted salaries once costs of living were factored in:
1. Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
2. Fort Smith, AR-OK
3. Huntington-Ashland, WY-KY-OH
4. Visalia-Porterville, CA
5. Toledo, OH
6. Laredo, TX
7. Rockford, IL
8. Modesto, CA
9. Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA
10. Canton-Massillon, OH
Read the entire analysis here.
Data was compiled by Indeed.com. Report does not reflect statistics on all U.S. or California cities.