Scope
The site covers the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories are excluded. The unit of geography is the county (or county equivalent, such as a parish, independent city or, in Connecticut, a planning region). The unit of comparison is one occupation, identified by its Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code.
1. Wages (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- Which wage: the annual median wage of the occupation in the BLS area that contains the county. Mean wages and the 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles are shown when published.
- Area mapping: BLS publishes wages for metropolitan areas and for nonmetropolitan regions of each state. We use BLS's official county definitions to place each county in exactly one area, so every county in the same area shares the same wage figures.
- Annualizing: all values are converted to yearly amounts before any calculation. Where BLS publishes only an hourly wage, we multiply by 2,080 hours (40 hours for 52 weeks).
- Missing data: BLS suppresses some estimates and caps others (shown as "*" and "#"). If the median, mean or employment count is unavailable, the occupation is not published for that area. We do not estimate missing wages.
- Sanity checks: rows are removed if the median is below the annualized federal minimum wage, if percentiles are out of order, or if the mean and median are implausibly far apart.
2. Taxes
Taxes are computed for a single filer whose only income is the wage shown, who takes the standard deduction, and who contributes nothing pre-tax. Each layer is calculated and shown separately.
Federal income tax (tax year 2025)
Taxable income is the wage minus the $15,750 standard deduction. Marginal rates apply only to the slice of income inside each bracket:
| Rate | Taxable income from | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 | $11,925 |
| 12% | $11,925 | $48,475 |
| 22% | $48,475 | $103,350 |
| 24% | $103,350 | $197,300 |
| 32% | $197,300 | $250,525 |
| 35% | $250,525 | $626,350 |
| 37% | Over $626,350 | — |
FICA (Social Security and Medicare)
Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to a wage base of $176,100. Medicare is 1.45% of all wages, plus an additional 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for a single filer. This is the employee share only.
State income tax
State tax follows each state's own rules for a single filer: its bracket schedule, standard deduction, personal exemption and personal credit. Alabama's deduction for federal tax paid and Oregon's capped federal-tax subtraction are modeled. Eight states with no tax on wages (Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming) show $0. Rates and brackets follow the Tax Foundation's 2025 compilation, with the 2025 rate cuts enacted after January 1 applied for Georgia, Idaho and Utah.
Not included: local (county, city, school-district) income taxes, state disability or paid-leave payroll levies, retirement or health-insurance deductions, credits for dependents, and phase-outs that apply only at high incomes. Real withholding can differ.
3. Cost of living
We price four basics for one adult. Each is converted to a yearly figure.
- Rent: the HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit (FY 2027) times 12. Two-bedroom rent is used for the roommate comparison. Where HUD publishes several areas per county (New England towns), rents are averaged weighted by population.
- Food: the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, the average of the monthly adult male and female (ages 20-50) costs from the most recent month in the file, times 12. It is the same national figure for every county.
- Home energy: 2024 state residential prices from the EIA multiplied by national household averages: 10,566 kWh of electricity per year, and the rest of an average 76.8 million Btu of site energy priced as natural gas (EIA RECS 2020).
- Gasoline: the state price per gallon from the EIA, for 11,106 miles a year (FHWA average per light-duty vehicle) at 24 miles per gallon, about 463 gallons.
Not included: health insurance and medical costs, car purchase and insurance, childcare, student loans, phone and internet, clothing, and savings.
4. The results
- Take-home pay = wage - federal tax - Social Security - Medicare - state tax.
- Left over = take-home pay - (rent + food + home energy + gasoline). It can be negative, in which case the page shows a shortfall.
- Comparisons: state and national averages are employment-weighted averages of the area medians for the same occupation within the covered counties.
- Rankings and hub statistics (medians of medians, share of occupations covering the basics) are computed only from pages that are published.
- IRS cross-check: county average adjusted gross income and the effective federal income tax rate (income tax after credits divided by AGI) from IRS Statistics of Income, shown beside our single-filer estimate. They differ because IRS data mixes filing statuses, deductions and other income.
5. Avoiding duplicate and near-duplicate pages
To keep each page distinct and useful, we use SOC codes to remove residual "All Other" catch-all categories and near-identical titles within the same SOC group, keeping the occupation with the higher employment. Pages are published gradually, not all at once.
Limitations
Figures are estimates built from survey data and published schedules. They describe a typical single worker, not you. Wages vary by employer, experience and hours. Counties inside one metropolitan area share wage data. Tax law changes every year, and we update the model when new rules and datasets are released.
Questions or corrections? See the about page, and read the terms of use regarding the informational nature of this site.