Gone are the days that a six-figure salary brings you financial ease.
New York City-based financial technology firm SmartAsset conducted a study to discover what a $100,000 salary is actually worth after taxes, and the results are eye-rollingly worse than you think.
SmartAsset compared the after-tax income in 76 of the largest U.S. cities and then adjusted those figures for the cost of living in each place (i.e. taking into account the price of housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and miscellaneous goods and services). By doing so, they were able to determine what one’s salary is actually worth.
And in New York City, it’s a pretty dramatic difference.
When taking into account taxes and the cost of living, $100,000 in NYC actually amounts to a mere $35,791 (based on numbers circa March 2023).
What’s worse is that, out of 76 U.S. cities looked at, NYC is dead last when determining which city gets the most out of their $100K salary.
How does our take-home salary differ than that from other parts of New York? Well, in Buffalo, the same six-figure salary is good for about $72,840.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Memphis, TN, where a six-figure salary goes the furthest. Here, workers earning $100K per year take home $86,444 of that–$50,653 more than in NYC.
Unfortunately, $100,000 definitely is not worth what it used to be. In fact, a recent survey from PYMNTS and LendingClub found that 51% of people who made more than $100K in December 2022 reported living paycheck to paycheck–that’s 7% more people than a year prior.
So, if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, you sadly may only have one option–move (like to this Italian village that’s selling homes for 1 euro!)
Where to, though? Closely following Memphis, TN where workers take home the most of their pay is El Paso, TX, Oklahoma City, OK, Corpus Christi, TX, and Lubbock, TX, where workers take home $84,966, $84,498, $83,443, and $83,350 respectively.
The full study can be found here.