What is considered a good salary in America (per year)?

11 comments

1. Such an interesting question, and it’s empty in the comments. Sheesh, will have to stay up a bit more

2. Depends on the city and state, the US is big.

   100k/yr that has you balling in Birmingham AL is gonna leave you dry in NYC.

3. In my opinion, anything that puts you in the Top-10/20% of income earners in your local area is objectively good.

   Could be anywhere from earning 80k individually in a small city to 200k individually in San Francisco.

4. It depends on where you live.

   If we want to consider “good” to be roughly equivalent to “middle class”, then [Pew](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/12/2015-12-09_middle-class_FINAL-report.pdf) gives us a range of 2/3 to double the median income.

   On a national scale, this would be ~$67,500 for a household. The range is $45,000 to $135,000.

   However, on a state-by-state or city-by city level, this isn’t wholly accurate. $135,000 will go much farther in Helena, Montana than it will in New York City or San Francisco, especially for a family.

5. Depends where u live

6. It all depends on where you live. If you want a good ballpark that will act as a rule of thumb. Take the median home price in a given area you are curious about, and then divide that number by 4. That would be enough of a salary in that area to afford the average home.

   If a place has a median home value of $400,000 per year, then $100,000 per year is pretty good. If a place has a median home value of $800,000 per year, then $200,000 is pretty good. This may not work at the lowest end of the extreme. A place like Gary Indiana might only have a median home price of $90k and thus $22k is 25% that much. The typical food and car budget is going to eat that up.

   The other thing you can do is take the monthly rental values in an area and multiply that by 36 to get an annual income. So if rent is $1800 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment, you need to make about $65,000 to afford that lifestyle.

7. Depends entirely on where you are. Both in terms of what state you’re and where you are within that state.

   A salary that will give you comfortable middle class life with your own home and no serious financial concerns in one place will see you living in a shoe box apartment with one or more roommates in another place.

8. Heavily depends where you live.

9. 60k in the majority of the US is a more than comfortable wage. North east or west coast? pffffft, equivalent to working poor

10. At around or bit over 100k per year

11. Cost of living calculator

    This one is pretty good and can be used world wide

    https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

    Might want to look at the tax rate you’d fall in