What $100 Is Worth In Every State
For the last couple of years, the Bureau of Economic Analysis has been analyzing the "real personal income" across the US — essentially, how much a dollar is worth given a state's cost of living. This map from the Tax Foundation takes that latest data (from 2015) and shows what $100 is "worth" in every state:
Want to get the most for your $100? Head to Mississippi ($116.01). Want to burn your cash a bit quicker? Move to DC ($85.47) or New York ($86.73).
Of course, as the Tax Foundation notes, residents of states where a dollar is worth less also tend to have higher incomes across the board:
What is also true is that places with high costs of living pay higher salaries for the same jobs. This is what labor economists call a compensating differential; the higher pay is offered in order to make up for the low purchasing power.