New York to Chicago on the C2ER ACCRA composite: -38.0% on the headline, -43.1% on housing alone. A $75,000 New York salary lines up with roughly $46,524 in Chicago after the consumer-price adjustment. State tax stacks on top — sidebar below.
If your goal is to land in Chicago with the same consumer-spending power you have in New York, multiply your current salary by 0.620. That ratio is the C2ER ACCRA composite index of Chicago divided by the composite of New York (116/187).
| New York salary | Equivalent in Chicago | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $31,016 | -$18,984 |
| $75,000 | $46,524 | -$28,476 |
| $150,000 | $93,048 | -$56,952 |
Composite indexes hide the within-budget variance that often matters more than the headline. Housing in New York can be far above the city's composite, while groceries sit closer to par. The same is true for Chicago. Compare the five categories below to see where your specific budget mix changes the picture.
| Category | New York | Chicago | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 232 | 132 | -43.1% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 117 | 100 | -14.5% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 134 | 108 | -19.4% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 107 | 99 | -7.5% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 165 | 112 | -32.1% |
| Composite | 187 | 116 | -38.0% |
For someone weighing a move from New York, NY to Chicago, IL, the cost-of-living comparison is the cleanest part of the analysis. Chicago runs about 38% under New York on the composite C2ER ACCRA index, and that translates directly into salary-equivalence numbers you can use to evaluate offers: $75,000 of New York purchasing power equals roughly $46,524 in Chicago terms.
What the index does not capture: lifestyle adjustments, neighborhood-level price variance within each metro, and tax differences between the two states. New York and Illinois can have meaningfully different state income tax burdens at the same salary level, and that gap is layered on top of the consumer-price gap rather than embedded in it. The sidebar on this page shows the state-tax delta at three salary anchors so you can stack the two effects and see the combined picture.
The cost-of-living index is a pre-tax measure. Add state tax to get the after-tax picture: New York at 6.85% versus Illinois at 4.95%. The $75,000 anchor shows $5,138 owed in New York versus $3,713 in Illinois, a $1,425 swing on top of the consumer-price gap.
The take-home pay calculator gives you the after-tax delta at your real salary and filing status. Federal tax is invariant under the move; the state rate is the only piece that flips. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
The data says no. Composite indexes: New York 187, Chicago 116. Chicago is roughly 38% less expensive overall, with the housing sub-index doing most of the work and other categories contributing smaller deltas.
Approximately $46,524. The math: $75,000 times the index ratio 0.62 (which is 116/187) equals the salary in Chicago that preserves your real-terms spending power. State tax sits on top — handled separately in the sidebar above.
Housing is the largest line item in any cost-of-living comparison and the one with the most metro-to-metro variance. New York's housing sub-index sits at 232; Chicago's is 132. That gap reflects rent and home-price differences captured in the C2ER ACCRA quarterly survey. Groceries (New York 117 vs Chicago 100), transportation (134 vs 108), and utilities (165 vs 112) all contribute, but housing is the dominant factor.
They are tracked separately. The cost-of-living composite measures consumer prices; state income tax is a different axis. New York and Illinois can disagree on tax by several thousand dollars per year at typical salaries, and that delta stacks with — not into — the consumer-price gap above.