It doesn't scale as simply as that. Imagine you were making $100k with $60k in expenses in the Bay Area. That means your discretionary income is $40k. Then you

It doesn't scale as simply as that. Imagine you were making $100k with $60k in expenses in the Bay Area. That means your discretionary income is $40k. Then you move to Ohio and make $50k with $20k in expenses. That's $30k in discretionary income. So, even though the Bay Area is 3x more expensive, and you're only earning 2x the salary, you're still taking more money home at the end of the year by accepting the job in the Bay. In this scenario you need to look at absolute cost, not relative cost. (Obviously there are also other factors to take into account like quality of life, etc - but that's highly dependent on the individual)