How to compare a salary between two cities using regional price parities

If you are weighing a job offer in another city, you can work out what your salary is really worth there with one division, using the federal government's own measure of local prices. This guide walks you through it with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regional price parities, the latest of which cover 2024 and were released on February 19, 2026, then adds state income tax and local pay data for your job so you can judge the offer, not just the price tag.

Quick reference

What regional price parities measure

A regional price parity (RPP) is a price level for a state or metro area, set against a national average of 100. If a place has an RPP of 110.7, as California did in 2024, its prices overall ran about 10.7% above the national average. Arkansas, at 86.9, ran about 13.1% below it.

BEA builds these numbers from two main ingredients, according to its technical notes:

• Price quotes from the Consumer Price Index, covering things like food, apparel, education, medical care, recreation and transportation.
• Rents from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, collected separately because housing matters so much.

Those prices are weighted by how much people actually spend on each category. Besides the "all items" figure, BEA also publishes RPPs for four slices of the budget: goods, housing rents, utilities and other services.

Two things RPPs are not:

• They are not an inflation rate. Each year's set is a snapshot. BEA's Survey of Current Business article on price adjustment says each annual set is estimated independently and cannot be compared across years. For price change over time, BEA uses a separate measure called the implicit regional price deflator.
• They are not a forecast of your budget. They describe the average mix of spending in a place, which may look nothing like yours. More on that below.

Where to find the latest RPPs for your state or metro

Start at BEA's Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area page. Before you copy any number, check two dates near the top: "Current Release" and "Next release." As of late October 2026, the current release is dated February 19, 2026 and covers 2024. The next one, covering 2025, is scheduled for December 10, 2026. If you are reading this after that date, use the 2025 figures instead and redo the math.

Then:

1. Open the Interactive Tables link on that page.
2. For states, choose the table of RPPs by state for all items. For cities, choose the metropolitan area table; BEA's 2024 release says metro area RPP statistics are available on its site.
3. Pick the same year for both places. Mixing a 2023 figure for one city with a 2024 figure for another breaks the comparison.
4. Download as CSV or Excel if you want to compare several places at once.

Use metro figures when you can. A state RPP blends big expensive cities with cheaper small towns and rural areas, so it can understate prices in a major metro and overstate them in a small one.

One recent change to know about: with the 2024 release, BEA stopped publishing real personal income and real consumer spending for metro areas. The release says RPPs will still be published for states and local areas. If a metro table looks out of date when you open it, check the year column before using it, and email BEA's RPP contact listed on the page if you are unsure.

Here are the 2024 state figures BEA highlights, for orientation:

Step by step: adjusting a salary from one place to another

The formula is short:

Equivalent salary in the new place = current salary × (new place's RPP ÷ current place's RPP)

Here is a worked example. The salary is hypothetical; the RPPs are BEA's real 2024 state figures.

Example: You earn $80,000 in California and are looking at a job in Oklahoma.

1. Find both RPPs for the same year: California 110.7, Oklahoma 87.8.
2. Divide the new place by the old: 87.8 ÷ 110.7 = about 0.793.
3. Multiply your salary: $80,000 × 0.793 = about $63,450.
4. Read the result: on average prices, about $63,450 in Oklahoma buys roughly what $80,000 buys in California.
5. Compare with the offer. An Oklahoma offer above that line gives you more buying power on average; one below it gives you less.

Flip it around and the same math answers the opposite question. If you earn $80,000 in Oklahoma and are considering California, you would need about $100,866 (that is, $80,000 × 110.7 ÷ 87.8) just to stand still on average prices.

A second way to run the same numbers

BEA itself adjusts income by dividing it by the RPP expressed as a decimal. That turns any salary into "national-average dollars," which is handy when you are comparing three or four places at once.

• $80,000 in California: $80,000 ÷ 1.107 = about $72,267 in national-average dollars.
• $80,000 in Oklahoma: $80,000 ÷ 0.878 = about $91,116 in national-average dollars.

BEA used this approach in its own 2022 illustration: per capita personal income was $95,970 in the District of Columbia and $46,370 in Mississippi, but after dividing by each area's RPP the figures became $85,044 and $53,099. The gap shrank a lot without disappearing.

Common mistakes

• Subtracting index points. California's 110.7 and Oklahoma's 87.8 are 22.9 points apart, but California's price level is about 26% higher than Oklahoma's (110.7 ÷ 87.8). Always divide, never subtract.
• Mixing years. Use one release year for both places.
• Adjusting the wrong number. Adjust what you actually live on. Gross salary is a fine first pass; take-home pay is better (see the tax section).

Why housing drives most of the difference

BEA's 2024 release calls housing rents "often the main driver" of the gaps between places, and the rents figures show why. In 2024, California's RPP for housing rents was 154.3 and West Virginia's was 54.2, which means typical rents in California ran close to three times West Virginia's. The District of Columbia's rents RPP was 155.0. Compare that with the all-items spread among states, which only runs from 86.9 to 110.7.

That has practical consequences for you:

• If housing eats a bigger share of your budget than average, for example a renter moving into an expensive metro, the all-items RPP will probably understate how much more you will pay.
• If housing is a small or fixed part of your budget, for example you own a home with a low payment or you plan to live with family, the all-items RPP may overstate the hit.
• If you plan to buy, note that the housing piece of the RPP is built from rents, not home sale prices. Check purchase prices and property taxes in the specific areas you would live in.

A simple housing check, as an example: price out the actual rental you would want in both places (same number of bedrooms, a commute you could live with). If the rent gap is far bigger than the all-items RPP gap suggests, trust your own number for housing and use the RPP only for the rest of the budget.

Other categories can matter too. In 2022, BEA's figures put Hawaii's utilities RPP at 201.2, roughly twice the national level. If you run air conditioning or heat a large home, look up the utilities RPP in the same interactive table.

Adding state income tax to the comparison

RPPs measure what goods and services cost. They do not include income taxes, and those vary a lot by state. Two jobs with the same gross pay can leave you with noticeably different take-home pay.

For example, Washington's Department of Revenue says Washington has no individual income tax at present. It also notes a recent change: starting January 1, 2028, a new 9.9% tax will apply to individuals and joint filers with adjusted gross income above $1 million. That is irrelevant for most salaries, but it shows why you should check the current rules rather than rely on what you remember.

To fold taxes in:

1. Estimate take-home pay in each place. Use each state revenue department's withholding tables or calculator. Federal income tax and payroll taxes are roughly the same for the same gross pay, so the state and any local income tax are what change.
2. Check for city or county income taxes. Some localities levy their own; the state revenue site usually lists them.
3. Divide each take-home figure by that place's RPP as a decimal.

Real take-home = (gross pay − federal tax − state tax − local tax) ÷ (RPP ÷ 100)

Then compare the two results. This is still an estimate. Your filing status, deductions and household size change your tax bill, so for a big decision, a tax preparer can run both scenarios properly.

Combining price parities with local wage data for your job

So far you have answered "what is my salary worth there." The more useful question is often "what do employers there pay people who do my job." For that, use the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). The May 2025 OEWS release, published May 15, 2026, covers about 830 occupations in the nation, states and about 530 areas.

Three terms you will see, in plain words:

• Mean wage: the average. Add everyone's pay and divide by headcount. A few very high earners can pull it up.
• Median wage: the middle. Half the workers in that job earn more, half earn less.
• Percentiles: markers along the range. BLS's percentile wages page shows the 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th. The 10th percentile is the level that only 10% of workers earn less than; the 90th is the level only 10% earn more than.

Know what OEWS counts. Its wages include base pay, cost-of-living allowances, commissions, production bonuses and tips, but leave out overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and the cost of benefits. If your job pays a lot of overtime or a big year-end bonus, your total pay will differ from the OEWS figure.

Worked example with real data: elementary school teachers

The May 2025 OEWS release lists annual mean wages for elementary school teachers (except special education) by state. Here they are next to each state's 2024 RPP:

Before adjusting, California's mean is about 83% higher than Mississippi's. After adjusting for prices, it is still about 44% higher. Lower prices narrow the gap but nowhere near close it. Two caveats: these are state averages, not metro figures, and the wage year (May 2025) is one year newer than the RPP year (2024). That is the best match currently published, and it is fine for a ballpark.

How to do this for your own job

1. Find your occupation in the OEWS data tables and open the metropolitan area tables for May 2025.
2. Note the median and the 25th and 75th percentiles for both metros.
3. Convert each into national-average dollars by dividing by its metro RPP as a decimal.
4. Place your offer in the new metro's range. Is it near the 25th percentile, the median or the 75th?
5. Run the RPP conversion on your current salary as well.

That gives you two tests. First: does the offer beat your current pay after adjusting for prices? Second: is the offer fair for that job in that market? An offer can pass the first test and still sit low in the local range, which is useful to know before you sign.

If your job does not appear for a small metro, use the state figure and say so to yourself: the data is thinner, so treat the result as a rough guide.

Limits of the method

RPPs are the best free, official yardstick for price differences across the US, but they are averages. Keep these limits in mind:

• Your household is not the average household. Childcare, commuting, a car versus transit, healthcare and debt payments can swing your real costs well away from the RPP.
• Places are big. A metro RPP covers an entire metro area. A downtown apartment and an outer suburb in the same metro can differ more than two whole states do.
• The data lags. The 2024 figures arrived in February 2026. If rents have jumped since, the RPP will not show it yet.
• No year-to-year comparisons. You cannot say a city "got more expensive" by comparing its 2023 and 2024 RPPs.
• Taxes and benefits sit outside. Income taxes, employer health premiums and retirement matches are not in the RPP. Compare total offers, not just salary.
• Pay data has gaps. OEWS leaves out overtime and some bonuses, and does not cover the self-employed.

Using the numbers in a pay conversation

Numbers like these are most useful when you can say them out loud calmly. A few scripts you could adapt:

When an offer in a pricier metro looks big but is not: "I'm excited about the role. When I adjust for the price difference using BEA's regional price parities, this offer comes out a bit below what I earn now. Is there room to bring the base closer to [your adjusted figure]?"

When the offer sits low in the local range: "I looked at the BLS wage data for this job in this metro. The offer is closer to the 25th percentile, and with my experience I'd expect to be nearer the median. Can we talk about getting closer to [local median]?"

When an employer proposes a pay cut for moving somewhere cheaper: "I understand pay is set by location. Could you share how the adjustment was calculated? Using BEA's figures, the price difference is about [your percentage], so I'd like the change to match that rather than exceed it."

Employers are not bound to use RPPs, and some use their own location pay bands. The goal is not to win an argument about indexes but to show you have done the homework. For more on how pay differs by place, browse our salaries by city coverage, and see negotiation for more scripts.

What to do next

• Open BEA's RPP page and confirm the current release date and data year before you calculate anything.
• Pull metro RPPs for both places, for the same year.
• Run your current salary through the formula to get your break-even number in the new place.
• Price out real housing in the neighborhood you would actually live in.
• Estimate take-home pay in both states, then adjust for prices.
• Look up your job's median and percentiles in the May 2025 OEWS metro tables and see where the offer lands.
• If BEA publishes 2025 RPPs on December 10, 2026 as scheduled, rerun the numbers before you decide.