According to a recent study, San Francisco is one of the least affordable cities in the country. Despite its reputation for being expensive, however, the average salary in San Francisco is actually quite high.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average wage per hour in San Francisco is $36.72. If you work full-time, this means you’ll make about $1,002 per week. The median household income in San Francisco was $87,928 in 2017, according to Census data. This means that if you live with a partner or spouse and have no children under 18 years old living at home with you, you would need to earn about $58,000 per year combined between the two of you in order to be considered upper class—that’s just slightly more than double the median household income!
If we use this as an example and assume that there are two people working in your household (one earning $60k/year and one earning $30k/year), then we can estimate that your monthly expenses are approximately:
$1,000 x 12 = $12,000
$2,000 x 12 = $24
Comfortable Salary In San Francisco
| Rank | City | Amount leftover after paying basic bills |
| 1 | San Francisco | -$2,734 |
| 2 | San Jose | $1,800 |
| 3 | Oakland | $8,448 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | $9,689 |
| 5 | San Diego | $13,077 |
You’ll notice that all of the top 5 cities are in California, and DePietro notes that’s largely because of housing costs: “SF has monthly rent in excess of $4,000; L.A., Oakland, San Jose all have median rents in excess of $3,000 a month, San Diego follows closely at $2,725,” he says. Plus grocery costs are high in these areas, as are income taxes.
For its part, New York didn’t make the top 10, and DiPietro explains that’s in part because transportation costs are low in the public-transit-dominant city. Plus, “the city’s median rent across all homes is $2,397, “thanks mainly to cheaper rents in boroughs like the Bronx keeping the overall rent price down,” he adds.
So what should you do if you’re struggling to pay your bills in pricey cities like these? Look first at slashing housing costs, which typically take up the lion’s share of your budget. These are “the 800 lb gorilla, if you will,” says Mitchell Hockenbury, a certified financial planner at 1440 Financial Partners in Kansas City, Mo. Speaking of how much people spend each day on things like coffee, he added, “The ‘latte factor’ has nothing on the amount folks spend on housing. If you can cut costs with housing you are better off than any other line on your budget.”
He suggests renting out a room in your home to offset costs, or renting a room in someone else’s home versus renting an entire apartment or home. “If you are from the area and can live at home and pay a cursory amount to your parents ($200/month) it is a great way to build up your cash,” he adds.
And Bobbi Rebell, a certified financial planner and host of the Financial Grownup podcast and co-host of the Money in the Morning podcast, adds that getting a roommate can help too. “Live with roommates but look for apartments and houses that can be configured with more rooms than you are paying for. For example, in New York some one bedrooms have living rooms in which people can build a partition to make a second bedroom. Of course, make sure this is legal and you aren’t violating any building codes.”
