Today’s Solutions: February 04, 2026

Where is the best place for you to live, based on salaries and costs of living? Is it a leading tech hub like the Bay Area or Boston, a superstar city like New York, or a less-established “rise of the rest” city like Pittsburgh? A new analysis by Jed Kolko, chief economist at the labor market and jobs site Indeed, breaks down the data, identifying the cities and metro areas where salaries stretch the furthest and workers and families have the most money left over.

To do so, he compares salary data from Indeed’s job postings to cost of living data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (as we know, differences in living costs are basically all about housing). This is what he found after analyzing all 185 United States metros with 250,000 people or more.

First off, there’s no doubt salaries are highest in big, expensive metros and leading tech hubs like the San Francisco Bay Area. On the flip side, these places also suffer from extremely expensive housing costs and mounting problems of housing unaffordability and inequality.

So, what happens when you adjust for housing and living costs? Kolko found workers thrive best in smaller metros, with the general trend being that paychecks stretch the further in smaller cities for most workers. In fact, the top 10 metros to live in all had a population below 1 million.

Want to see where your city ranks in terms of salaries and cost of living? Look no further.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Yale will offer free tuition to families earning under $200,000 starting in 2026

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The prestigious Yale University is opening its doors even wider. Beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year, families earning ...

Read More

5 smart ways to prep your garden now for a stunning spring bloom

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Spring might feel like a distant dream, but a few mild winter days offer the perfect window to ...

Read More

Forget plastic: Here are some greener ways to freeze food

While Ziploc bags and plastic wrap can be useful for sealing up food that’s going into the freezer, there are better alternatives—ones that are ...

Read More

Introducing “True American”— a mini-series

Last month on Independence Day, The New Yorker published an issue featuring cover art by graphic illustrator Christ Ware. The narrative piece, called “House ...

Read More