Seattle to Austin on the C2ER ACCRA composite: -23.0% on the headline, -30.3% on housing alone. A $75,000 Seattle salary lines up with roughly $57,730 in Austin after the consumer-price adjustment. State tax stacks on top — sidebar below.
If your goal is to land in Austin with the same consumer-spending power you have in Seattle, multiply your current salary by 0.770. That ratio is the C2ER ACCRA composite index of Austin divided by the composite of Seattle (117/152).
| Seattle salary | Equivalent in Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $38,487 | -$11,513 |
| $75,000 | $57,730 | -$17,270 |
| $150,000 | $115,461 | -$34,539 |
The breakdown below decomposes the Seattle-vs-Austin cost-of-living gap into its five constituent sub-indexes. National average for each is 100; the delta column shows how each line item changes between the two metros. Housing routinely shows the largest swing.
| Category | Seattle | Austin | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 198 | 138 | -30.3% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 113 | 95 | -15.9% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 122 | 102 | -16.4% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 118 | 98 | -16.9% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 110 | 104 | -5.5% |
| Composite | 152 | 117 | -23.0% |
Cost of living in Austin, TX runs about 23% below Seattle, WA on the standard C2ER composite index, which is a substantial gap by U.S. metro standards. The practical translation: $75,000 in Seattle buys roughly the same basket as $57,730 in Austin. If you can hold your Seattle salary while working remotely from Austin, the math is straightforward — you keep the income, you reduce the spend, you bank the difference.
The reality is that most employers do not let remote workers hold high-cost-area salaries indefinitely. Meta, Google, GitLab, and most of the larger remote-first companies apply geographic pay zones that trim 5–25% off salaries for moves to lower-cost regions. The breakeven test: if your pay cut is smaller than the cost-of-living delta, the move still improves your real income. Run the numbers both ways — pay constant and pay adjusted — before committing.
The cost-of-living index is a pre-tax measure. Add state tax to get the after-tax picture: Washington at 0.00% versus Texas at 0.00%. The $75,000 anchor shows $0 owed in Washington versus $0 in Texas, a $0 swing on top of the consumer-price gap.
Model the precise after-tax difference with the take-home pay calculator using your specific filing status and salary. Federal tax is identical regardless of which state you live in; only the state component moves. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
No. The composite index for Austin, TX is 117; Seattle, WA sits at 152. Austin runs roughly 23% below Seattle, with the housing sub-index driving most of the difference and grocery, transport, and utility prices following the same direction at smaller scale.
Plan on roughly $57,730 of gross salary in Austin to match $75,000 of Seattle purchasing power. The calculation uses the C2ER ACCRA composite ratio (117/152 = 0.77). That is pre-tax; the state-tax sidebar handles the after-tax piece.
Look at housing first. Seattle sits at 198 on the housing sub-index; Austin sits at 138. The other four categories (groceries 113 vs 95, transport 122 vs 102, utilities 110 vs 104) all move smaller absolute distances and rarely dominate the composite.
No — the composite cost-of-living index focuses on consumer prices and does not include state income tax. The state-tax sidebar on this page handles that adjustment separately. Washington's flat or top-marginal state rate is layered against Texas's, and the gap can be several thousand dollars per year at a typical salary level. Stack the consumer-price equivalence with the state-tax delta for the full after-tax picture.