(KRON) -- If you're looking for a high-paying job, you may want to head out west to the Golden State. Employment company Forage found that many of the best cities for high-paying entry level work were right here in California.
Joe Silverman, personal finance expert and economics professor at San Diego State University told KRON4 that many factors determine of a job is high paying, "not the least of which is the cost of living."
While Californians may see bigger paychecks on average, they've also got higher bills. The median home price in January 2023 within the state of California was a whopping $696,600, according to real estate company Redfin. Choosing to rent in California may seem more affordable, but not by much. The median monthly rent for all bedrooms and all property types in California is $2,950, according to Zillow's most recent data.
Silverman said that some people may be able to accept lower-paying jobs if they have a way to reduce their cost of living, by living with family for example. He also shared that doing your research on how others are being paid in your field along with the status of the labor market can help to negotiate the best salary for you.
If you're looking for a new job that pays well, where should you start your search?
Forage ranked cities with high-paying roles and compared them with how affordable it is to live in each place. Cities were scored then ranked based on ten criteria, listed in full below.
Many of the cities on this list are based in the Bay Area, which benefits greatly from high-paying roles at various tech companies. But tech isn't the only field where you can find high-paying roles. Two cities in the Greater Sacramento area also made the list, thanks to high-paying roles in law, health care and engineering.
1. Mountain View, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
Roles in the city of Mountain View offered some of the highest entry-level wages available, and that's thanks in big part to technology companies like Google and parent company Alphabet. The company is headquartered in Mountain View and, even after recent layoffs, still employs over 150,000 people.
As of May 2021, entry-level software developers in the area earned $71.62 per hour on average. There were over 67,000 software developers working for various companies across the San Jose metro area in 2021.
2. Palo Alto, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
Home to Stanford University and the birthplace of some of the biggest companies in tech, it's no surprise Palo Alto comes in at No. 2. The median household income in Palo Alto is the highest of all of the cities in the study, $195,781, about $38,000 more than in neighboring city Mountain View.
3. Santa Clara, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 26.4%
Though Santa Clara comes in third on the list, it appears to be a more affordable place to live, according to the study. Though entry-level wages in Santa Clara are the same as Mountain View or Palo Alto, only 26.4% of this city's residents are spending 30% or more of their income on housing. The median earnings for all workers in the city is $88,186, which is significantly lower than other areas of Silicon Valley.
4. Sunnyvale, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.1%
Sunnyvale, nestled between Mountain View and Santa Clara is comparable in may ways to its Silicon Valley companions, as entry-level wages are the same. However the median household income and median earnings for all workers are both higher in Sunnyvale.
Housing in Sunnyvale requires a bigger chunk of its residents' incomes at 30.1%. Unemployment in this city is slightly higher than others within the metro area at 6.3%. These numbers pushed Sunnyvale down the list.
5. Newton, Massachusetts
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $21.58
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 24.5%
Forage credits Newton's top-five finish on the list to high-paying entry-level roles for software developers ($48.57 per hour), mechanics and investment analysts. Though these wages are significantly less than their Bay Area counterparts, the affordability of housing in the area means those wages go further.
6. Milpitas, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
Back in the Bay Area, Milpitas benefits from tech roles just about as much as its counterparts in Sunnyvale or Mountain View. One surprising number is that the median household income in Milpitas is significantly higher than Santa Clara, Sunnyvale or Mountain View.
7. Rochester, Minnesota
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.98
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 24.6%
Rochester's entry-level wages are boosted by roles at the Mayo Clinic. Entry-level registered nurses in the area earned an average of $39.45 per hour as of 2021. Rochester's median household income is the lowest on the list, coming in at $75,902 per year. The median earnings for workers in the area is also lower, sitting at $45,870.
Though wages in the state are significantly lower, Minnesota offers a much more affordable cost of living than its California counterparts, and only 24.6% of residents in Rochester were spending more than 30% of their income on housing, according to 2021 data.
8. Roseville, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.66
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 31.3%
The first California city outside of the Bay Area is 20 miles outside of Sacramento. Thanks to this area's more affordable cost of living, wages are going much further in Roseville than they do for Bay Area workers.
9. Folsom, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.66
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 34.2%
Another city based in the greater Sacramento area, Folsom is about a 25-minute drive southeast of Roseville. Entry level wages here mirror those in Roseville, as the cities are both in the same metro area. One number that dropped this city lower on the list is the high number of residents spending more than 30% of their income on housing.
10. Broomfield, Colorado
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $21.42
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 27.8%
Broomfield benefits greatly from the Ball Corporation, a manufacturing company which is headquartered in the town, according to Forage. Colorado has a much more affordable housing market than California is able to offer, so fewer residents are spending above 30% of their income on housing.
Methodology
Forage used data from the U.S. Census and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics along with other government sources to develop the list. The ten criteria considered in the study were listed as follows:
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages
- Median household income
- Median earnings for all workers
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level
- Wage growth
- Job growth
- Unemployment
- Poverty rate
For more specific breakdowns on the weighted averages, please visit the study website.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/HIV9RG6
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