Pay differences: Same job, 10 different cities

Jeanne Sahadi,
CNNMoney.com senior writer

Here's what you might earn in jobs that pay annual salaries of $60,000 and $90,000.

The cost of living and the cost of labor vary from city to city, so it's no surprise that a company may pay different amounts for the same position depending on where it's located.

For example, a job for which the national median pay is $60,000 (including bonus) likely will pay closer to $73,000 in San Francisco and $59,000 in Milwaukee, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting's latest geographic salary differentials survey.

A job with a national median salary of $90,000, meanwhile, could pay as much as $102,000 in New York and a little over $88,000 in Denver.

To conduct its survey, Mercer researchers considered a group of different positions that each had the same national median pay (e.g., $60,000 for senior accountants, programmers and buyers). They then looked to see what the local median pay is for those positions in more than 200 cities.

PAY DIFFERENCES IN 10 CITIES

National median $60,000 $90,000 San Francisco $72,720 $100,890 New York $71,100 $102,060 Los Angeles $66,060 $96,390 Chicago $65,100 $94,680 Wash., D.C. $63,540 $94,590 Houston $62,640 $90,720 Denver $61,920 $88,200 Atlanta $61,860 $91,350 Miami $60,960 $88,560 Milwaukee $59,040 $89,100

Source:Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Of course, in theory, a higher salary in one city may be expected to afford the job-holder the same quality of life as she could expect in the same position in a less expensive city. But it often doesn't due to the effect of taxes and local inflation rates.

New York is the clearest example. To afford a lifestyle that $100,000 can buy you in lower cost cities, you'd need to earn well over $200,000. (See more.)

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