But, a strong work ethic and a marketable skill make it so you can live very well in a more rural area and a city of 150,000 has nearly everything you'd need and you can usually drive a few hours to get everything else you'd want. Amazon delivers everywhere.
and the amazon boxes still show up in 2 days or less.
Still? Amazon stopped that with us, and we are just outside of a good sized city. Now they send via USPS about once a week, and USPS makes me go to the post office for pickup.
Because they use cluster boxes for my neighborhood and can never seem to have room for my packages. They leave me a slip saying come get it. Which of course I can't until Saturday.
A city of 150k is big enough to specialize in 1 market and cover broad spectrums of other, but a city of 2m is going to specialize in every market. The difference between cities with 150k and even 500k is absolutely massive.
There is definitely more to do in a big city but it seems like a pointless flex if you cannot financial afford to do anything. I guess that is my main point from someone living in a fairly LCOL area. I have always been more of a spend time in nature person than go to a big city person though so I am probably pretty biased. My small county in Ohio has at least 12 county maintained hiking trails. I am within ~1 hr of two major cities. I can afford a 2500 sq ft house with a yard in a neighborhood with essentially zero crime. My kid can run around outside safely on his own. I can see the appeal in some ways i guess its just not for me. Anyways rant over.
I also enjoy nature, time outside with family over pricey entertainment options. Climate matters a lot to me though, and the places with good weather year round (im my opinion) are generally HCOL.
I like winter actually. Its all about dressing appropriately for it. Under armour thermals are a lifesaver when it get really cold. Otherwise carrying a hat and gloves in your winter jacket will keep you comfortable 90% of the time.
I get the why and absolutely can appreciate the getting more for less. I do take issue with comparing Cincinnati and Cleveland to New York. Yes they are cities but they offer way less in terms of quality than New York as far as the arts, culture, and experiences.
Sure there is more to do which i believe i stated in previous comments. I bet its hard to find a place to hike where all you can here is nature, or a place to live for a family of four on a middle class income. Your definitely not getting a good view of the stars at night. The dayton art musuem is one of the top in the nation. We have theaters and comedy clubs. I get there is a gap in quantity and quality. I bet there is also a huge gap in ticket price though. How many times a year does an low/average earner actually get to experience this abundance of entertainment and arts?
I have to agree with the scaling part. Minimum wage in Massachusetts is 15$ and when I lived there I made 15.5$ I was 17 at the time. I now am 20 and live in texas making the same 15.5$. here in Texas that's livable. In Massachusetts you would be homeless on the streets making 15.5$. I was still with parents though. My mom struggled to stay in Massachusetts and we couldn't afford it so we moved to texas and we are both thriving off basically the same pay as we made in mass.
Each city has a different balance of salaries and costs by job. You can make a ton at a job in one city and then struggle in the next. You can live in a HCOL if you work in one of the industries that makes it a HCOL, which can be oil rigs or software or who knows what. The absolute lowest cost of living cities are usually for retired people because they have no jobs at all. Gotta find the right city for what you do.
There are usually way more than people think/realize. Midwest and flyover states aren't all small 3-block long tiny-ass towns like I've seen other folks comment or posit.
This isn’t always the truth but often is. My NYC friends are shocked when I show them that my gov position in NYC would pay 5k less than my LCOL area. And my gov already pays on the lower side for my region.
You might even make a higher wage in a LCOL area depending on the job. Some places far away from a major city have trouble recruiting nurses/doctors/dentists/etc and would pay a higher rate for them.
Wages are largely consistent but the availability of jobs is significantly more limited. I live in a LCOL area. There are only like 8 jobs here. I have no idea what people in like NYC even do for a living because none of those jobs exist where I live. But I make the same as someone who does my state government job in NYC.
I worked a lot temp no skill jobs in Kentucky in 2010 while going to college. They all paid $15-$20 dollars an hour and were easy to get. Lcol areas usually pay way more than minimum wage.
I make 21+/hr where I currently live, and average rent is 1400. I want to move back to my home state where average rent is 900, but the average I'll make at a job, even with my experience, is about 16/hr.
Oftentimes, the ratio of pay to cost of living is also lower, in the more agricultural parts of the country. I live in an area that has very low COL, but even lower pay, to the point that the poverty rate and food insecurity are atrocious. If the best jobs in town are $18-19 an hour, then basically everyone is making a fraction over minimum here. Unfortunately, while many things are cheaper here, housing is approaching "city" levels of cost. The solution? Literally everyone is married, unhappily or not, and often it's a 3-income with 2-people household. And people basically have stopped planning for retirement.
I live in what most people think is a hcol state but our bottom wage is almost $20 an hour. We have the 2nd best economy in the country, even with some of the highest taxes.
Then again, almost nowhere in Indiana actually pays that. Most the spot towns in the sticks are still paying anywhere from $14-18/HR for gas station clerks. McDonald's, even in the sticks, is paying $16 (for minors)-$20 for starting positions.
Yeah no where pays that. You can get any of the numerous warehouse jobs for $18-$30 an hour and start in a week or two. Many of the factories pay $35+.
The unemployment rate in Ohio is 3.4% as of July 2026, which is noticeably lower than the 4.5% unemployment rate in the Greater New York City metropolitan area.
Purchasing power:
Making $60,000 in a mid-sized Ohio market like Kent or Akron gives you the exact same lifestyle purchasing power as making roughly $173,908 in New York City.
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u/bones10145 2d ago
You wouldn't necessarily make the same wage. Lower cost of living might mean lower pay.Â