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Lets use an up to date calculator to evaluate the difference in cost to live two places. Cupertino Ca, where I raised a family, and Kansas City, Mo the center of your so called fly over country.
To live a comparable life style, earning $44,326 (the median income in the Kansas City MO), and you moved to Cupertino California you would have to earn $159,969.
To me that means you would have to earn 3.6 times as much money in Cupertino. And that is not going to happen as the median income there is $53,941 according to City-Data.
The median income figure counts all the people who are already there. In other words, you're combining apples and oranges: a cost-of-living figure based on the housing inventory on the market right now and a median income figure consisting mostly of people who paid far lower than today's prices for their housing.
$159,969 is actually a pretty reasonable salary expectation for a newly arrived tech worker in Cupertino. If you're not offered that much, you could always opt not to take the job, or go down to lowly Santa Clara (where I live) and commute for 20 minutes or so.
It used to be that the major metro areas paid higher wages across the board.
This is no longer the case. Major metros areas pay higher wages for highly skilled positions or simply have employment that doesn't exist anywhere else (e.g. fashion , Finance, or commercial construction in NYC or film in LA) but they no longer pay a premium for other jobs.
Why is this the case? I think it's a confluence of factors relating to the degradation of private sector unions (especially in the NE), lack of mobility (in earlier decades people would simply move much faster), and a lack of job growth/opportunities elsewhere.
Here is a list of what have been judged the 50 best places to live in the U.S. None of the big city areas of the country even qualify to be on the list.
Note the median income in these areas. The people actually make more money when adjusted for cost of living in these areas, and if you compare them with the big city areas, these people have a better quality of life, and that is why they are considered the best places to live.
GeoffD---Note that neither Boston or Chicago are on the list of best places to live.
Yes, but Acton, MA is all of 21 miles northwest of Boston. My guess is that all of those 50 "best places to live" are popular 2nd or 3rd ring suburbs of at least mid-size regional metros.
Rural areas of the Midwest and South are declining faster than ever as the low cost of living has few advantages with very few jobs available and overall costs not being that much higher in the larger metro areas. For better or worse nearly all the growth and new jobs are in the larger metro areas- so I do think that the more desirable locations will continue to get more expensive in terms of real estate. A good example is Hamilton County, Indiana just north of Indianapolis that includes Carmel and Fishers. Median household income is $80-85K, median housing prices are still under $300K and the percentage of the population with a four year degree is 55%. This area is growing at over 10% since 2010 while Chicagoland suburban counties are growing at less than 1/5 of that rate. The big reason? Very high property taxes in most of Chicagoland.
The rural areas of the Northeast and Mid Atlantic are also declining like the rural Midwest and South, possibly at a lesser rather because there are more small and mid-sized metros to provide job opportunities for people willing to commute. My guess is that rural central Indiana is declining less rapidly than rural western Nebraska.
Lots of jobs in the major metro areas with relatively low unemployment rates and a very high cost of living pay the bottom fifty percent of the work force about the same pay rate per hour as they would make in lower cost of living towns in the Midwest or the South. For example, the Sears store in Fairfax County VA in the booming high cost DC area pays it's retail staff $8 an hour, the same rate as they pay in small town South Carolina.
Lots of jobs in the major metro areas with relatively low unemployment rates and a very high cost of living pay the bottom fifty percent of the work force about the same pay rate per hour as they would make in lower cost of living towns in the Midwest or the South. For example, the Sears store in Fairfax County VA in the booming high cost DC area pays it's retail staff $8 an hour, the same rate as they pay in small town South Carolina.
Retail has to pay more than that here in Montana. Our McDonald's starts high school kids at $10 an hour and go to $12 an hour in the summer. Adults working days when the kids are in school can get $14 an hour there. This is what happens in areas away from the big cities, like Montana where it is only about 3% unemployment in our particular area.
Walmart is going to $10 an hour rapidly around the country or so they say. Here they have been starting people at $10 an hour with big signs inside door seeking help at that rate for a while to be able to get help. It is terrible that high cost of living areas of the country, are seeing lower pay for bottom 50%. Not only do they get more money, but it costs much less to live there.
Retail has to pay more than that here in Montana. Our McDonald's starts high school kids at $10 an hour and go to $12 an hour in the summer. Adults working days when the kids are in school can get $14 an hour there. This is what happens in areas away from the big cities, like Montana where it is only about 3% unemployment in our particular area.
Walmart is going to $10 an hour rapidly around the country or so they say. Here they have been starting people at $10 an hour with big signs inside door seeking help at that rate for a while to be able to get help. It is terrible that high cost of living areas of the country, are seeing lower pay for bottom 50%. Not only do they get more money, but it costs much less to live there.
Expensive metro areas may pay a little more but an extra $1 of $2 per hour doesn't even come close to making up the difference.
Expensive metro areas may pay a little more but an extra $1 of $2 per hour doesn't even come close to making up the difference.
And a lot of places in the west especially, the smaller towns will often pay more than expensive metro areas, and have a far lower unemployment rate. A little higher pay, and lower cost of living make a big difference in ability for lower income people to live.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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If someone is going to work minimum wage jobs, they should avoid living in high cost areas. Live where that money goes a lot farther. Higher minimum wages like the soon-to-be $15 in Seattle is still not enough to offset the cost of housing, people would be a lot better off financially making that $10-12/hour at McD in Montana than $15 in Seattle.
If someone is going to work minimum wage jobs, they should avoid living in high cost areas. Live where that money goes a lot farther. Higher minimum wages like the soon-to-be $15 in Seattle is still not enough to offset the cost of housing, people would be a lot better off financially making that $10-12/hour at McD in Montana than $15 in Seattle.
Problem in Seattle is when they go to $15 an hour minimum wage, that is going to greatly increase prices at retail stores as an example that pay minimum wages, etc. This is going to help drive up the cost of living there for everybody.
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My guess is that all of those 50 "best places to live" are popular 2nd or 3rd ring suburbs of at least mid-size regional metros.
