People often entertain the idea that, if they just relocated to another, cheaper city and keep their income the same, they’d have more dough to spend.
Well, hate to break it to you, Boston. The median paycheck in the Hub doesn’t get you a whole lot – and definitely doesn’t get you this. On the somewhat-bright side, however, the grass isn’t greener in most other metros.
NPR rolled out an interactive this week detailing just how far the average paycheck in cities around the country goes. The government revealed a new data set on personal incomes adjusted for price.
Each metro's paycheck was divvied down to its “real” sum – in other words, how much that amount of money really feels like at the end of the day.
Boston’s median income clocks in at $37,954. A respectable amount of pocket change.
The “real feel” amount hits at $32,274. That hurts.
When it comes to cities of comparative size, however, the Hub’s fairing fairly well.
Washington D.C. leads the pack in terms of highest median income and the real feel amount, with $44,452 and $35,029, respectively. But that’s still a big knock when calculated for cost of living in the Capital.
Our neighbors in New York are raking in an average income of $37,064. If you’ve ever paid over $10 for a bagel and cup of Joe in the Big Apple, then you know that the metro’s estimated real feel salary of $28,799 makes sense.
Maybe the most notable finding, though, is that the similarly techie town of San Francisco has the exact same real feel salary as Boston. While San Fran folk make on average $41,265, their cost of living whittles it down to the same sum of $32,274.
Perhaps that nugget of info could serve to persuade people looking to ship out to California in hopes of a breezier day-to-day.
The metro with people generally getting the most for their money is Danville, IL. Though the average salary is $30,079, it stretches $35,937 – more than the real feel amounts of Washington, D.C., New York, Boston and San Francisco.
Image via Shutterstock
