What Salary Do I Need in Denver to Match My San Francisco Pay?
San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities — calculate the equivalent Denver salary for your current SF income.
How to use this tool
- Enter your current annual salary.
- Enter the cost-of-living index for your current city.
- Enter the cost-of-living index for the city you're considering.
- Read the equivalent salary, the dollar difference, and the percentage change in costs.
Moving from San Francisco to Denver can let you maintain your lifestyle at a significantly lower salary.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the comparison work?
- It scales your salary by the ratio of the two cities' cost-of-living indices. If the new city's index is 20% higher, you would need a 20% higher salary to maintain the same standard of living.
- Where do cost-of-living indices come from?
- Several sources publish them, weighting housing, groceries, transport, utilities and more against a baseline of 100. Use one consistent source so both cities are measured on the same scale.
- Does this include taxes?
- Basic cost-of-living indices usually exclude income taxes, which vary widely by state and city. For a fuller comparison, also compare after-tax take-home pay in each location.
- Why might my personal result differ?
- Indices reflect an average household's spending. If your mix differs — for example you rent in a pricey housing market — your real difference can be larger or smaller than the index suggests.