Is this before/after taxes? The problem is if you live in SF vs Austin, the sales taxes are similar but California's income tax will take 10-15k off the top. Af

Is this before/after taxes? The problem is if you live in SF vs Austin, the sales taxes are similar but California's income tax will take 10-15k off the top. After that, you have to think about cost of rent. I'm currently debating between moving to SF vs Austin and would end up spending ~30k a year for rent and utilities. For a similar, or slightly nicer, place in Austin, I'd spend ~12k. The difference there, ignoring cost of living of other things, is ~30k. Beyond that, (based on my anecdotal offers in both cities), the differences in salaries between the 2 cities are smaller than 50% (closer to 30% before tax, which seems to match the data in the article, if not still larger). By that point, you have approximately the same amount of money left over in either city. Granted, in Austin, you'd probably need a car unless you live/work downtown or near the campus so there are trade-offs but I don't think it's as simple as directly comparing percentages. Even after all this, I'm definitely considering moving to SF since I think it'd be better for my career in the long term but I'm not fooling myself about the money I'd be making. Seattle seems to be the sweet spot for that (no income tax, good tech, cheaper housing than SF). EDIT: sales tax -> income tax