12 Most Expensive U.S. Cities for Those Earning $100,000

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An annual salary of $100,000 may look high in many parts of the United States, but less so in some of America’s largest cities, after taxes and basic living expenses.

New research from GOBankingRates finds that some states take a big bite in taxes, while others do not even apply an income tax, making the $100,000 number vary widely, depending on where the earner lives.

To find how far a salary of $100,000 goes in the 50 biggest U.S. cities, GOBankingRates sourced the most populated cities from the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 

Researchers also tapped Sperling’s BestPlaces for the grocery, health care, utilities and transportation indexes, and calculated the national average expenditure costs for each category for all individuals, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. They sourced average rental cost from the Zillow Observed Rental Index and added this figure to the annual expenses to find the total cost of expenses. 

Then, using in-house calculations for each city, researchers calculated take-home pay after taxes, and by removing the annual total cost for expenses found the net remainder from a salary of $100,000 as of Jan. 8. 

See the accompanying gallery for the 12 most expensive cities in the country, based on how much is left over for those earning an annual salary of $100,000.

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