Are there any recommended resources to compare cost of living indexes and salary differentials?
You can easily compare the COL for various cities (1). What do you mean by salary differentials? Do you mean listed salaries for comparable jobs? For example what is the average salary for a mechanic in Seattle vs. Washington DC? Payscale.com has a service that is free to people, after registration, which will search out average salary based on a number of factors ranging from geographic location to education of the employee. The site also identifies whether or not an increase of education affects wages or not. All considered the site is a very valuable research tool. I can tell you without doing research that the cost of living will be far lower in Michigan than in California nearly without regard for specific city comparisons. California is one of the most expensive states to life in. Wages, on the other hand, will be vastly lower in Michigan. Michigan has been affected by the auto-industry. Once a state infused with cash from the auto-industry, it became a state impoverished when th
