Compare what the same public-sector job pays across California cities — Sacramento, Bay Area, San Diego, LA Metro, Inland Empire, Central Valley — adjusted for cost of living.
The same job in California can pay wildly different amounts depending on which city you work in. A UC Davis RN base-step makes ~$60/hr (Sacramento metro). A UC San Francisco RN on the same step makes ~$68/hr (Bay Area locality). But Bay Area COL is ~30% higher than Sacramento, so the 'effective pay' — what your salary buys in housing, food, and lifestyle — flips Sacramento ahead in net terms.
This tool compares the same job across 30+ California cities. Inputs are the job code (RN, LCSW, civil engineer, K-12 teacher, sheriff deputy, etc.) and your origin city. Output: ranked list of cities by nominal pay, by cost-adjusted effective pay, and by estimated net monthly take-home.
For California public employees considering a transfer (between UC campuses, between counties, or between state agency regions), this is the math that should drive the decision — not just the salary headline number.
Step 1 — Pick your job code. The tool covers ~80 common California-public-employee jobs (RN, NP, PA, MA, K-12 teacher, civil engineer, social worker, deputy sheriff, etc.).
Step 2 — Set your origin city. The tool anchors all comparisons to this city's COL and pay as the baseline. Pick where you currently live or where you'd want to stay.
Step 3 — Review the comparison. Output table shows: nominal pay (raw salary), COL index (relative to your origin city), effective pay (nominal × origin COL / destination COL), and estimated net monthly take-home after CA state tax + sales tax adjustments.
Pick a job (RN, social worker, civil engineer, teacher, etc.) and the tool shows real salary data from 30+ California cities, cost-of-living adjusted, with the net 'effective pay' ranking.
Open the comparison tool →Typically 8-15% higher base salary than Sacramento for the same job, due to UC system-wide locality differentials and individual contract terms. Example: UC Davis RN step 5 pays about $58/hr base. UCSF RN step 5 pays about $66/hr base — a 14% premium. But Bay Area cost of living (housing especially) is 30-40% higher, so the effective pay is actually LOWER in net terms unless you also have housing dialed-in (rent control, employer-provided, or family land).
Federal employees: locality pay is a percentage adjustment to base pay based on where you work, set annually by OPM (Office of Personnel Management). 2026 SF Bay Area locality is 47.6%; Sacramento is 31.4%. State and UC employees use contract-specific differentials rather than OPM's table, but the same idea applies: pay scales adjust upward for high-cost regions.
Often yes for public employees, especially UC or state workers who can transfer with portable benefits. Common moves: Bay Area → Sacramento (save ~$30k/year on housing), LA Metro → Inland Empire (save ~$20k/year), Bay Area → Central Valley (save ~$40k/year). The catch: family roots, community, kids' schools, and commute changes are real costs that don't show up in the math.
Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) publishes the standard COL Index, used by employers and relocation calculators. The tool uses C2ER index data updated quarterly. Alternative sources: BestPlaces.net, Sperling's Best Places, BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. They differ by 5-10% on any specific city pair due to methodology differences.