United States · planning defaults

In Chicago, IL, a $90,000 salary keeps about $29.20 an hour.

Planning tax load: 27%. One-bedroom rent used here: $2,100 a month, $25,200 a year. That rent is about 38% of take-home on this example, or 863 kept hours. Your lease and your bracket will differ. The ratio is the point.

Annual salary Real hours per week, including the ones that “don’t count” Weeks you actually work Combined tax load, percent Round-trip commute, minutes Commute days per week Meeting hours per week

—Kept hour, after tax

—Kept hour after commute is counted as work

—Gross hourly, before tax

—Evening hours already sold (over 40 / week)

—Commute, valued at your kept hour

—Meetings, valued at your kept hour, per year

—Take-home, same tax load

The calculator stays free. The $39 sheet is a human check of the same numbers, not a locked file.

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What the rent does to the hour

A raise that does not clear rent plus tax is a relocation costume. If you are choosing between Chicago, IL and a cheaper city, run the same salary in both calculators, then subtract a year of rent from take-home and divide by your real hours. The city with the higher leftover hour is the city that pays you.

Remote workers: set commute to 0 and do not pretend the home office is free. A dedicated room has a rent. Put a fraction of rent into the commute field as “minutes” only if you want a nudge; better, subtract it mentally from take-home. The tool stays honest if you do.

All cities · $90,000 salary page