Is $75K, $100K, or $150K a Good Salary? The Actual Framework

"Is $85K a good salary?" is one of the most-searched career questions on Google, and almost every answer you'll find is useless. The standard replies cite a national median ("$75K is higher than the US average, so yes!") without ever mentioning where you'd be earning it or what you'd pay in tax. A $75K salary in Manhattan is poverty-adjacent. The same $75K in Indianapolis is solidly middle-class. Same number, different realities.

Here's the framework I'd actually use.

Step 1: Convert gross to net (after-tax)

Gross pay is the number on your offer letter. Net pay is what lands in your account. They can differ by 25–40% depending on state. Before you compare two salaries, always calculate take-home:

• $75K gross = roughly $59,000 net in a no-state-tax state, $54,000 net in California/New York.
• $100K gross = roughly $78,000 net no-tax-state, $72,000 CA/NY.
• $150K gross = roughly $111,000 net no-tax-state, $100,000 CA/NY.

See exact numbers for your specific state with the paycheck calculator or for common milestones at $75K, $100K, $150K.

Step 2: Adjust for cost of living

A dollar of net pay buys different things in different cities. Cost-of-living indices measure this — the US national average is 100. Anything above 100 means your money buys less; anything below 100 means it buys more.

The adjustment is straightforward: your "COL-adjusted" buying power = net pay × 100 ÷ COL index.

Example: $72K net in NYC (COL 187) has buying power of $72,000 × 100 ÷ 187 = $38,500. That same $72K in Columbus, Ohio (COL 90) has buying power of $80,000. The Columbus paycheck goes more than twice as far — even though the gross salary number is identical.

Step 3: Compare to a realistic benchmark

The median household income in the US is about $75,000. That's a national average — useless for individual comparisons because it blends NYC with Tuscaloosa. Better benchmarks:

• Your city's median household income — available on your target city's salary page. A salary at or above the local median puts you in the upper half.
• Your role's 75th percentile in your city — use Levels.fyi (tech), Glassdoor, or BLS Occupational Employment Statistics. Anything at or above the 75th is "good" by market standards.
• Your personal budget needs — if your target lifestyle costs $65K/year, a $75K offer is comfortable; a $50K offer requires tradeoffs. Use the budget calculator to see your real number.

Applied: "Is $85,000 a good salary?"

Depends entirely on where. Run the three steps:

• $85K gross → roughly $67K net (no-tax state) or $61K (CA/NY).
• In Austin (COL 119): $67K × 100 ÷ 119 = $56K buying power.
• In NYC (COL 187): $61K × 100 ÷ 187 = $33K buying power.
• Austin median household income: ~$85K. Your offer = at the median. Decent.
• NYC median household income: ~$77K. Your offer = slightly above median. Worse deal than it looks because NYC's market distorts the median upward through high earners.

$85K in Austin: solid offer. $85K in NYC: below-comfortable. Same gross number, completely different realities.

The single biggest move you can make

If you work remotely or have flexibility, living in a low-COL high-pay-remote region is the single biggest financial lever available. A remote worker earning a Bay Area salary while living in a COL-85 midwestern metro effectively earns 2× the buying power of their same-gross in-office colleague. This is why digital nomadism, intentional relocation, and COL-arbitrage have become legitimate wealth-building strategies.

Use the moving salary calculator to see exactly how much of a "raise" moving to a lower-COL city would give you at your current salary.