How do you compare salaries when relocating?

Question

For personal reasons, I'm hoping to get a new job and relocate, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what to ask for in terms of salary. There is a pretty decent difference in cost of living between where I am now versus where I'm hoping to go (+15% vs -15% compared to the national average), and I just don't know how to deal with it. Finally (this is the part the makes this programming related), while I have a decent idea what I would expect for a .NET job, this position would is in the C++ and embedded world which I tend to think is more valuable but I don't know how much.

Should I:

• Calculate my current pay in terms of national average dollars and convert that to the new location?
• Go with what salary.com says I should make given the position title?
• Ask for what I currently make? Let them do the adjustment for location?
• Dodge the question?
• Something else?

As I said, I want to make the move for personal reasons so moving forward in salary isn't of particularly importance as long as my family can still live the way we want to. On the other hand, I don't want to short change or undersell myself by asking for too little, but I just don't know what's reasonable for the location and position I would be moving to.

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My justification

I seem to have stirred up far more controversy with this question than I ever expected so I'm changing it to wiki mode in the hopes that the fact that I can't earn any reputation from it will calm things down.

Out Into Space asked in a comment what type of answers I was looking for and I thought I should answer that here so more people are likely to see it. I was looking for resources like the CNN Money site, other factors besides cost of living to consider like those Uri listed, or descriptions of what others in similar situations did. I'm not looking to abdicate responsibility, I just find it difficult to know what's fair going into a new area where I don't know anybody and thought there might be some good advice from my fellow programmers.

From my perspective, this question is no further removed from programming than any of the other questions I've seen in the jobhunting or career-development tags and is certainly relevant to programm*ers* and therefore seemed like a reasonable question to me. I know better than to take it personally, but I am seriously bummed that something I thought would be so useful to others turned out to be so controversial instead.

Answer 1

CNN Money has a nice breakdown of cost of living differences as well as an estimate of salary between several major domestic cities.

Answer 2

I personally don't fully trust those generic cost of living conversions.

First, you may not know what zipcode you'll live in.

Second, metropolitan areas are very different in their structure, lifestyle, and housing market. Simply calculating how much a house would cost in another place is not straightforward. There are a lot more factors in work that you have to take into account even to figure out housing. For example, a developer in a place like Pittsburgh (where I live) can easily and cheaply live close to work, whereas moving to NY would mean having to figure out commute lengths, their cost, different house sizes, etc. Commutes are also important if you're moving from warm climate to cold climate.

Third, taxes are very very different from one region to another, and in some regions you have multiple jurisdictions (e.g., tri-state areas).

Fourth, the market rate for developers in an area may be different, so something generic may not tell you how good or bad your offer is.

My recommendation would be to learn everything about the target metro, good and bad areas, public transportation system (including what people think about it and whether it is being downcut), and then to look on Craigslist to get an idea of homes/rentals and figure out what's really equivalent to what you need.

Answer 3

figure out what your realistic expenses would be, plus the cost of relocation, then pick a number that you would be comfortable with for a few years (do not assumed yearly raises, do not count on any 'bonus' or 'option' etc.)

cost of living is an average which may or may not fit your lifestyle; the biggest part of it will likely be housing, food, and transportation

the 'average martket rates/salaries' are just that - averages. On average, no one is average. Do a little research (real estate sites, cost of food, transportation/commute costs, etc.) and come up with four numbers:

1. what you will need to live comfortably
2. what you think the job is worth
3. what you think you are worth in that job
4. the most you think they will pay

choose the largest of these numbers as your asking price; if the offer is less than the first number (what you need to live comfortably), you might want to pass

Answer 4

Where are you, where are you going, do you own your home, do your kids go to private school, and does your wife work?