About

Relocation decisions often fail to account for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). A higher nominal salary does not guarantee a better lifestyle if the local Consumer Price Index (CPI) erodes the difference. This tool normalizes income against a basket of goods - including housing, food, and transportation - to reveal the true economic value of a salary in a new location.

HR professionals and expatriates use these indices to calculate Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). The data focuses on urban centers where price variance is most volatile compared to national averages.

Formulas

The comparison logic uses a base index relative to New York City (Index 100).

Salary_B = Salary_A × Index_BIndex_A

We calculate the detailed variance for specific categories:

Δ = (

Cost_B − Cost_ACost_A × 100

Reference Data

City	Cost of Living Index	Rent Index	Groceries Index
Zurich, Switzerland	128.5	68.2	129.8
New York, USA	100.0	100.0	100.0
Singapore	85.9	80.6	75.3
London, UK	79.4	65.8	62.1
Tokyo, Japan	78.2	42.1	80.5
Toronto, Canada	72.6	48.2	68.4
Berlin, Germany	65.4	30.5	55.8
Mexico City, Mexico	40.2	18.4	38.9
Bangkok, Thailand	38.6	16.8	40.5
New Delhi, India	24.5	8.4	22.1

Frequently Asked Questions

The composite index includes Rent, Groceries, Restaurants, and Local Purchasing Power. It excludes income tax, which varies significantly by visa status and citizenship.

The calculation assumes the salary is converted at current market spot rates. Currency volatility can affect real-world purchasing power significantly over short periods.

Housing is often the single largest expense and varies independently of other goods. For example, groceries might be cheap in a city where housing is critically undersupplied and expensive.

The indices typically represent a standardized basket of goods for a single consumer. While family costs scale, they do not always scale linearly due to shared housing and bulk purchasing.