Alamo City residents may not pull down West Coast-style salaries, but not living on the West Coast sure does wonders for our wallets.
The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro ranks fourth in the nation for cost-adjusted salaries — an annual average of $72,022 a year — compared to other metros with at least 250,000 residents and growing job markets, according to a
report from Indeed, the job search site. Lubbock was the only other Texas city on the top 10. Its average adjusted salary of $72,340 landed it at No. 3.
The study illustrates how living expenses make a significant difference how far a paycheck goes. San Francisco salaries are 19 percent higher than those in San Antonio, for example, but adjusted for costs such as housing, goods and services, salaries are actually 11 percent higher here.
To get its rankings, Indeed drew salary figures from jobs posted on its website and adjusted them based on cost-of-living stats from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Researchers also adjusted the report to compare cities with high job growth and low unemployment, filtering out cities that may have high adjusted salaries but poor job prospects.
“Even if you’re only considering economic factors when choosing a new hometown, don’t stop at adjusted salaries,” the report says. “Unless you’ve already got a secure job in hand, you should consider the ease of finding a job today and the odds of having one in the future.”
Here's how the cities on the list stacked up:
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.