The one formula that decides most relocation offers
Moving from Austin to San Francisco at the same $150,000 salary is a 30-40% real pay cut after rent, state tax, and cost-of-living adjustments. Moving from NYC to Miami at the same salary is a real raise of 15-20%. Same headline number, totally different purchasing power outcomes.
The formula: Equivalent Salary = Current Salary × (Destination COLI / Origin COLI). If your current COLI is 100 and the destination is 150, you need 1.5x your current salary to break even. Add state tax differences on top — they compound the effect.
This calculator runs the core COLI adjustment so you can see what salary you need in the new city to maintain your current purchasing power.
Real example: $130k move from Atlanta to Boston
An engineer moved from Atlanta to Boston for a new role. Atlanta COLI: ~107. Boston COLI: ~149. Current salary: $130,000.
Break-even salary in Boston: $130,000 × (149/107) = $181,000. Plus, Massachusetts has a 5% state income tax vs Georgia's 5.39%, so the tax side is a slight wash. Housing is the killer: a $1,700/mo apartment in Atlanta becomes $3,200/mo in Boston, a $18,000/yr delta.
The engineer's offer came in at $165,000. Headline looks like a $35k raise. Real terms: roughly $16,000 pay cut after COLI and rent. He negotiated to $175,000 + $10k sign-on, which got him close to break-even. Without running the COLI math, he would have taken the first offer and felt misled by year two.
What COLI actually measures
A Cost of Living Index (COLI) is a composite measure of prices for a standard basket of goods, services, housing, transportation, and utilities in a given metro, normalized so that the US average = 100. Major sources: BLS CPI by metro, Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), Numbeo crowdsourced data.
Top COLI metros in 2026: San Francisco (~192), New York (~187), Los Angeles (~173), San Diego (~160), Boston (~149), Seattle (~148), Washington DC (~140), Portland (~130), Miami (~123), Denver (~125). Low-COLI metros: Memphis (~85), Cleveland (~88), Cincinnati (~93), Oklahoma City (~92), Kansas City (~95), Houston (~96).
COLI is an average — for high earners, the weighting shifts heavily toward housing, so the effective COLI you feel may be higher than the composite index suggests.
State tax on top of COLI
COLI doesn't include income tax. You must add it separately. Moving from a no-tax state (TX, FL, WA, NV, TN, SD, WY, AK, NH on wages) to a 9-11% state (CA, HI, NY, NJ, OR, MN) effectively subtracts 6-9 points of purchasing power on top of the COLI adjustment.
Moving from Austin to San Francisco: COLI adjustment 192/119 = 1.61x needed. State tax adjustment: 0% to effectively 11% = +11% needed. Combined: about 1.80x your current salary just to break even on after-tax purchasing power.
Check state tax in both origin and destination. NH and TN have no wage tax but tax investment income differently. Use the Take-Home Pay Calculator with both state rates to see the tax-only delta.
What COLI misses
Housing type. COLI assumes median housing. If you're buying instead of renting, or if you need a specific school district or urban/suburban preference, the effective cost can diverge significantly from the index.
Family composition. Childcare in NYC or SF can easily run $2,500-3,500/mo per child — not reflected in standard COLI. Private school tuition in those metros can add another $30-50k/yr per child. Your family structure changes your personal COLI.
Commute economics. A suburban COLI looks lower than urban, but the required car + insurance + gas adds $8-12k/yr that an urban-dwelling-with-transit household avoids.
Remote work. If you're remote and can choose where to live, COLI becomes a pure choice variable. Your employer's geo-adjustment policy (or lack thereof) matters more than any metro data.
Negotiating the geo adjustment
Most multinational employers and larger tech companies have formal geo-adjustment bands. When relocating, ask in writing: "What's the comp adjustment for this location, and when does it take effect?" Get the specific new number before you sign.
For inbound to a high-COLI metro, cite the calculator: "Per COLI 149 vs 107, the break-even salary for me in Boston is $181k. Your offer of $165k is a real-terms pay cut of roughly $16k." Recruiters often have geo-flex budget that's separate from the base band.
For outbound from a high-COLI metro (moving from SF to Austin), your leverage is weaker — companies are correct that your costs drop. But negotiate the timing of the adjustment: "I'm happy to accept the geo adjustment, but can we phase it in over 6 months to align with my lease and school transitions?"
Disclaimer
This is not financial or relocation advice. COLI indexes are averages and can diverge from your personal experience significantly based on household composition, housing type, and lifestyle. State and local tax rules change; always verify current rates. For a binding relocation decision, run the specific numbers with a tax professional in both origin and destination states, and get geo-adjustment terms in writing from your employer before committing.