How far does a paycheck go in Minneapolis?

Minneapolis, MINN. (Fox 9) – Your paycheck can only take you so far after paying for your basic life necessities such as groceries, transportation, clothes, housing, and other assorted things you need to live your life. After paying for these commodities, you have money to do whatever you want with. You can save it or spend it as you please. But what you’re left with can vary greatly depending on where you live in the country.

How much money are you left with in Minneapolis?

The backstory:

To determine how much money a person would have after paying for basic life necessities, SmartAsset looked at the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. and looked at the median adjusted earnings for a single adult with no children in each area. They then used data from MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which determines the required amount of money it takes to afford a minimum but adequate lifestyle in each area.

Local perspective:

Landing at the top of the list for cities in the Midwest where you save the majority of your paycheck was Minneapolis-St. Paul, where your living wages only eat up 66.8% of your total earnings, the fifth-best metro in the U.S.

SmartAsset found this by estimating that the median earnings for a single adult in Minneapolis was $76,198 and the living wage for the area was $50,898. Meaning, that the living wage added up to roughly 66.8% of the median earnings, leaving Minneapolis residents with roughly $25,300 a year extra (pre-tax).

How much money are Midwesterners left with?

By the numbers:

Multiple other Midwest metro areas landed near the top of the list as well. Along with Minneapolis at No. 5, Detroit finished at No. 11 and Milwaukee at No. 12. Each city’s living wage took up 68% of an average resident’s earnings. Madison, Wisconsin also made the list at No. 16 at 68.7%. Chicago landed closer to the middle at No. 34 at 72.5%

At the bottom of the list in the Midwest was Grand Rapids, Michigan, at No. 61, where the living wage is roughly 77.4% of a resident’s total earnings.

Check out the full list of Midwest metros and how much living wages take from each city’s average earnings:

• Ranked No. 5 nationally: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota – 66.8% taken from earnings, median earnings of $76,198
• No. 7: Toledo, Ohio – 67% taken from earnings, median earnings of $61,913
• No. 8: Cincinnati, Ohio – 67.1% taken from earnings, median earnings of $65,993
• No. 11: Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan – 68% taken from earnings, median earnings of $67,863
• No. 12: Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wisconsin – 68% taken from earnings, median earnings of $67,330
• No. 13: Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek, Ohio – 68.1% taken from earnings, median earnings of $63,750
• No. 15: Columbus, Ohio – 68.2% taken from earnings, median earnings of $68,389
• No. 16: Madison, Wisconsin – 68.7% taken from earnings, median earnings of $72,853
• No. 17 Cleveland, Ohio – 68.7% taken from earnings, median earnings of $64,007
• No. 20: Akron, Ohio – 69.6% taken from earnings, median earnings of $62,878
• No. 29: Des Moines, West Des Moines, Iowa – 71.1% taken from earnings, median earnings of $66,709
• No. 34: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois – 72.5% taken from earnings, median earnings of $73,979
• No. 36: Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, Indiana – 73.3% taken from earnings, median earnings of $65,140
• No. 61: Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, Michigan – 77.4% taken from earnings, median earnings of $63,880

Rest of the country

Dig deeper:

As for the rest of the country, Austin, Texas, finished at the top of the list at 64.6%. San Francisco, which finished at No. 6, actually had residents left with the most money following living wages at $34,795.

On the other end, Honolulu, Hawaii, finished at the very bottom of the list with living wages taking up 98.9% of a resident’s earnings, leaving them with an average of $789.

The top 10 cities in the country can be found right here:

• No. 1: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas – 64.6% taken from earnings, median earnings of $76,322
• No. 2: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia – 65.3% taken from earnings, median earnings of $92,391
• No. 3: Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Maryland – 66.7% taken from earnings, median earnings of $76,923
• No. 4: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington – 66.7% taken from earnings, median earnings of $91,052
• No. 5: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota – 66.8% taken from earnings, median earnings of $76,198
• No. 6: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California – 66.8% taken from earnings, median earnings of $104,912
• No. 7: Toledo, Ohio – 67% taken from earnings, median earnings of $61,913
• No. 8: Cincinnati, Ohio – 67.1% taken from earnings, median earnings of $65,993
• No. 9: Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut – 67.1% taken from earnings, median earnings of $77,917
• No. 10: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – 67.4% Taken from earnings, median earnings of $68,624