The tool bases cost-of-living calculations on home locations and bases salary estimates on work locations. It figures the expected change in your cost of living and salary using metro adjustments for each criterion.

If you are moving from one area to another, you may expect your salary to change because the labor market is different in the new area. Similarly, you may also expect the cost to maintain your current standard of living to change because the costs of things like housing, food, and utilities are different in the new location. You will likely notice when using the Cost-of-Living Wizard that these two factors do not change in concert with each other. Usually there is a net change, either positive or negative, because one changed more than the other. This net change is shown at the top of the Summary with an arrow to indicate whether your move will net you more disposable income (up arrow) or less disposable income (down arrow).

Cost of living. A measure of how much it costs to live in an area. The cost of living is based on the prices of a marketbasket of goods and services typically consumed, including principally housing but also taxes, food, clothing, transportation, healthcare, etc. If your potential new location has a higher cost of living than your current location, you should expect to have to pay more to maintain the same standard of living in that new location.

Salary comparison. Differences in pay in different cities or geographic areas, also known as a geographic salary differential. These differences are similar to, but not the same as, differences in the cost of living. The geographic salary differentials used in the Cost-of-Living Wizard are based on the typical pay practices in different regions. They reflect the fact that a job may pay a different amount in a different city because the labor market is different, pay practices are different, cost of living is different, etc.

Total net change. The sum of the change in cost of living and change in salary from your current location to your new location.

We set your salary and cost of living at your current location to be equal to the salary you input as your current salary. That is to say, your cost of living is directly proportional to your current income.

Each metropolitan area is preassigned with a cost-of-living factor and a salary adjustment factor based on that geography's relationship to the national averages. The metro adjustments are made using a cost-of-living adjustment factor and a geographic salary equivalent factor - the latter is comparable to those factors used in the Salary.com Salary Wizard. The equivalent salary and cost-of-living information for your new (second) location is based on the relative ratios of the cost-of-living factors and salary adjustment factors, respectively, for the two locations. The cost-of-living data is aggregated by our team of market analysts based on publicly available sources.

Salary.com's compensation experts periodically compare our adjustment factors to actual market data for those geographies to ensure that our adjustment factors reasonably reflect the market. As we find a geographic area speeding or slowing relative to the national market, we modify the adjustments for that geography and review the surrounding geographies for similar potential adjustments.

• A total net change, which shows the aggregate difference between your present location and new location factoring both cost-of-living and salary differences.
• A table showing the percentage expected changes in cost of living and salary that would result from moving from one location to the other.
• A graphical side-by-side comparison of cost of living and salary by geographic area.
• A narrative description of the expected changes if you relocated.

A greater level of detail on the market value of hundreds of jobs is available free of charge through our Salary Wizard or, for a customized assessment taking into account your skills and experience, through a Salary.com Personal Salary Report.