City-level
salary data
for every role
Compare real salary numbers across 300+ U.S. cities and 150 occupations. Search any role, any location.
54,000+
Salary data points
300+
U.S. cities
150
Occupations
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Popular salary pages
Real salary data for top U.S. cities and occupations.
The same salary can mean very different things in different cities
A software developer earning $185,000 in San Francisco and one earning $132,000 in Austin aren't $53,000 apart in real life — after California's top state income tax bracket, the Bay Area's housing costs, and everyday prices that run roughly 40% above the national average, their monthly disposable income can land within a few hundred dollars of each other. The nominal number is the easy part. The honest part is what that number buys.
That gap between sticker salary and real purchasing power is the entire reason this site exists. Every page pairs the official Bureau of Labor Statistics wage for that occupation in that city with a take-home pay calculation — federal tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare — and adjusts it against the local cost of living. So when you compare a nursing salary in Phoenix against one in Pittsburgh, or a teaching salary in Dallas against one in Denver, you're comparing what your life will actually feel like, not two numbers on a page.
Some patterns surprise people. States with no income tax — Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada — don't automatically win, because their fastest-growing cities tend to have the steepest housing cost run-ups. A high nominal salary in a no-tax state can still lose to a middling salary somewhere cheaper. The only way to know is to run the numbers for the specific city and occupation, which is exactly what the search bar above lets you do.
Explore by Occupation
Salary data for the most common U.S. occupations.
Software Developers
$119K median
Registered Nurses
$92K median
Accountants & Auditors
$78K median
Elementary Teachers
$65K median
Construction Managers
$104K median
Electricians
$62K median
Financial Analysts
$96K median
Police Officers
$74K median
Mechanical Engineers
$96K median
Marketing Managers
$157K median
Pharmacists
$136K median
Lawyers
$145K median
Browse salary data by state
Every state page links to each city and occupation we track — pick a state to drill in.
Salary questions, answered with real data
A few things people actually want to know when they land on a salary page — and how this site helps answer each one.
Which cities pay software developers the most?
On paper, San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle top the list — median software developer pay in those metros clears $170,000. But once California's state income tax and Bay Area housing costs hit, the ranking of where your paycheck goes furthest reshuffles considerably. The software developer occupation page shows top-paying cities nationwide alongside the cost-of-living context that the headline number alone hides.
Is a registered nurse salary livable in a big city?
It depends entirely on the city. The national median for registered nurses sits near $92,000, but in New York City or San Francisco that figure is stretched thin by rent, while in cities like Phoenix, San Antonio, or Columbus it supports a comfortable middle-class life. Each city-level nursing page runs the take-home pay calculation against the local cost-of-living index so you can see the real monthly surplus or shortfall, not just the gross number.
Do no-income-tax states actually leave you richer?
Often not by as much as the marketing suggests. Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, and Tennessee skip state income tax, but their boom metros have some of the fastest-rising housing costs in the country. The math that matters is take-home pay minus local cost of living — which is exactly what the comparison tool on every salary page computes. A common result: a slightly lower salary in a lower-cost metro beats a higher salary in a no-tax but expensive one.
How fresh is the data, and can I trust it?
Every figure comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — the same dataset used for federal labor-market policy. BLS releases it annually with a 1–2 year collection lag, and each page surfaces the survey vintage so you never read stale numbers as current. No scraped job-board data, no self-reported anecdotes. Full details on sources, tax modeling, and known limitations are on the methodology page.
BLS Official Data
Sourced directly from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey.
300+ Cities Covered
City-level salary data spanning all 50 states and major metro areas.
Updated Annually
Fresh data from the latest available government surveys each year.