Real Wage

City guide · Figures as of 23 Oct 2026

What a job in New York really pays per hour

At the typical local salary of $86,310, a full-time office job you reach by public transit pays $22.96 for each hour it actually takes, not the $41.50 the salary suggests. Done fully remotely, the same job pays $29.58 an hour.

Try it with your own numbers

The local figures

Typical salary$86,310 a year (BLS mean annual wage, New York metro, May 2025)
Effective tax rate27.5% at that salary
Public transit$6.00 a day in subway fares, 102 minutes round trip
Driving$13.66 a day in gas & congestion toll, plus $25.38 parking; 73 minutes round trip
Other job costsAbout $60 a week at five office days and $20 when remote (estimates)

Every figure is sourced at the bottom of this page.

Four ways to do the same job

The same salary and 40 paid hours a week, with no unpaid overtime. Only where you work and how you get there change.

SetupReal hourly wageJob costs a yearCommuting a year
Office five days, by transit$22.96$4,680442 hours
Office five days, by car$20.57$13,270316 hours
Office two days, by transit$26.62$2,496177 hours
Fully remote$29.58$1,0400 hours

Commuting by transit five days a week costs $1,560 a year in fares and takes 442 hours, about 55 eight-hour days. Going in two days a week instead gives back 265 hours and lifts the real wage to $26.62.

Driving instead of taking transit costs $8,590 more a year and gives back 126 hours, so the real wage by car is lower: $20.57 against $22.96 by transit.

What an office job here has to pay

For a five-day office job reached by transit to pay as much per hour as a fully remote job at $86,310, it would need a salary of about $109,367: $23,057, or 27%, more. By car, it would need about $116,088.

This uses the same effective tax rate for both salaries. Extra salary is usually taxed at a higher marginal rate, so the real break-even is somewhat higher. How the break-even salary works.

Where these numbers come from

Figures are in USD. Round-trip times are average one-way commutes doubled. Driving assumes 14.4 miles each way at 27.2 miles per gallon unless noted. The methodology explains the method and its limits.

Other cities