A job offer in a new state always quotes the same number: salary. What it never quotes is the paycheck. Two states can differ by several thousand dollars a year on identical pay — and the difference is not always in the direction you expect.
Start with the state income tax
Nine states levy no tax on wages at all — Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and New Hampshire (which taxes only interest and dividends). At the other end, top-bracket states like California, New York, New Jersey and Oregon take a meaningful slice well before you reach their top rates, because their middle brackets are steeper than most people assume.
But do not stop at the rate table. States differ in what they shelter: some offer no standard deduction at all, some piggyback on the federal one, and personal exemptions vary wildly. Our state pages spell out each state's 2026 structure because the details move the answer by hundreds of dollars.
The layer everyone forgets: local tax
New York City adds its own income tax on top of New York State's. Every Indiana county levies a local rate. Ohio cities tax commuters. Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Kansas City — each takes a cut that a state-level comparison completely misses. A "move from a 5% state to a 0% state" can shrink to nearly nothing if the destination city has its own wage tax.
Compare honestly in two minutes
The Compare States tool runs one salary through both states side by side — same filing status, same federal tax, same FICA — and shows the per-paycheck and annual difference. Run it with your actual offer number, then check the city pages for both locations. Only then bring cost of living into the decision: a $4,000 tax saving spends very differently in Manhattan than in Houston.